


Lions Make Decent Wingmen

by GalacticSoul



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bit o' action, Canon Compliant, Coran and Allura KNOW, Crushes, Embarassment, F/M, Green is shipping trash, How does write, I wrote this before school started so slow updates my dudes, M/M, More Serious Than It Sounds, Multi, Mutual Pining, OC planets, OG paladins, Pining, Pining Shiro (Voltron), Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, Right?, SHIDGE, Season/Series 03 Spoilers, Season/Series 04 Spoilers, Season/Series 05 Spoilers, Season/Series 06 Spoilers, Sentient Voltron Lions, Smidge of Klance, Space Uncle Coran (Voltron), Takes place after/ in season 2, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, This pair of dweebs, This'll save me from my exams, hardcore crushing, lion bond, match making, pining pidge, why am I doing this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-14
Updated: 2018-08-10
Packaged: 2018-12-14 04:16:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 48,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11775303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalacticSoul/pseuds/GalacticSoul
Summary: Despite being the five mechanical felines that comprised the most powerful weapon in the universe, the Lions could be quite the handful. A sentient being with it's own personality is always dangerous when your share a bond with them after all. This, of course, would get on anyone's nerves, especially when Green and Black decide to play matchmaker with their pair of paladins.After events fall in front of them like dominos of opportunity and watching these two fumble around each other, could you blame them?





	1. Black has an idea

**Author's Note:**

> So, after scrolling though the pits of Tumblr after the 'age reveal' from the Official Paladins Book, I've seen a quiznacking ton of discourse to the Shidge fans. Yet, since I and many others believe that both Pidge and Shiro ages are not entirely correct (Do you really thing Pidge is just 15, Shiro 25, or that Holt is an Italian name? C'mon, guys.), and with the creators constantly refusing to reveal the ages, I've decided to write more fluff.  
> Not to mention, the two barely interacted in Season 3, and that was upsetting. (#NotmyShiro.)  
> So, screw the antis and the discourse, let's go.  
> PS: I wrote this the day before school restarts, so I'll edit and improve this later.

Although The Black Lion and Shiro now had a near perfect bond, there were certain instances where Shiro couldn't stand his robotic partner.

Allura, when assigning the team their Lions, had described the mechanical feline as _'the Decisive Head of Voltron'_ , and the corresponding Paladin had to be someone _'whose men would follow without hesitation'_. Both had to be true leaders, true heroes, stable and able to work together without a hitch. They were destined to be the driving force behind the 'Savior of the Universe', and that meant a partnership unlike any other was a necessity. Over the year that the team had been active, that kind of relationship was formed; Shiro had fought the ruler of an intergalactic empire in another dimension just to prove it. The two had forged a bond built on understanding and trust, though both could waver at any time.

Unbeknownst to the rest of the Universe, when one has a Lion Bond, it was constant communication. Feelings, thoughts, and ideas were blended into each others head, sometimes to the point where it was indistinguishable what belonged to who. This was the most useful and desired relationship with the near magical felines, as it created higher possibility that one would pull through a battle, or when either Paladin or Lion would need repair, both knew how to contact a medic, or engineer. It wasn't so much a form of telepathy where one's mind could be pried through, but more so a version of conveyance.

Also, Shiro found, when the relationship between the two was strong enough, verbal conversations were plausible, and possible. Shiro and Black, when close enough to speak, had long conversations about anything that came to the two's minds. Black, with his rich, soothing tone, would recount the days of old, when Zarkon and the original band of Paladins would save the day. In turn, Shiro would describe the events before Kerberos, and how he remembered his far away home planet. Chatting about teams both new and old, recounting tales of the past, and over all learning about the other, Shiro found that Black was a wise, peaceful source of information.

But, as the Human leader would learn, The Black Lion could be a coy, unbearable conversationalist and Shiro a helpless leader with a merciless teammate. Thus, periods of time passed where Black was a handful and then some. His Lion would always be the older, outranking one of the pair, the somewhat older brother to the human. As customary with all elder siblings, Black could be teasing and relentless in all the actions that concerned the younger. And he's _obviously_ obliged to tease about crushes.

This included hardcore crushes on the team's resident tech expert.

In the aspect of love, the Black Paladin was never one to ask for advice. On Earth, he had only ever dated once or twice, and in those instances, Shiro had always been the one to be asked, and the one who was dumped. He considered the emotions of love and all that came with it one of his many weaknesses, a gray area for the ex-pilot. Shiro had every intension of keeping it that way, at least until the fabled 'one' came along. He was determined to wait for the right person before making a move that would have an undesired effect.

Said 'one' came in the form of his best friend's sister: an adventurous, brilliant, extravagant young woman by the name of Katie 'Pidge' Holt. Ever since the two reconnected after the failed Kerberos exploration mission, the Black Paladin had become infatuated with the honey-haired genius. By just her attitude, wit, and endless amounts of sarcasm, Shiro had felt his heart beat a tad bit faster at the girl. He began to fall head first after the journey to meet the Olkari, noticing all the tiny habits that was her nature: Tiny sniffs when she would see something unpleasant, how much her grin would grow after she cracked through a firewall- it was enough for the older teen to go insane. The aforementioned grey area had become as bright as her color, and as lively all the same. She curled her way into his head like a blast from her Lion's vine cannon, and the intruding thoughts had no intention of going anywhere soon. Yet, Shiro considered the feelings one-sided, so he hid it away as best he could; but, the growing emotion seeped into his actions and even into the Lion Bond.

The former was a terrible mistake, in Shiro's opinion.

He had been in Black's cockpit the day he sorted most of it out, so it wasn't as if he had tried too hard, though.

* * *

 

_It had been just after they had seized a Galran outpost for the Blade of Marmora, the battle over after a day's worth of fighting. Voltron, in all of his glory, was forced to be used, the giant's sword driven through hoards of Galra fighters in order for the Blade to sneak aboard the main ship. The sector then cleared of the Empire's influence, the team was permitted to rest and move on towards the next outpost. The collective ten members of Voltron had returned to their hangers, awaiting both repair and rest from the dents, blaster fire, an colorful bruises they had earned. Black's controls had powered down, purple screens flickering off, yet Shiro had lingered in the cockpit, staying in the pilot's chair. He needed a quiet place to think, at least for a minuet, before he joined the others._

_'My Paladin, what is the matter?' His lion had asked. 'We were victorious, and there were no civilian casualties.'_

_"It's Ka- Pidge. She nearly got herself killed out there," Shiro tore his helmet off, letting it fall into his lap. "This isn't the first time, either! It's like she has an impulse to throw herself into the middle of a fight. I feel like I should say something.'_

_Black must've felt his worry through the link. 'She is out of harm's way, and she only was fired upon so heavily so Green and herself could guard your escape. Every time she "throws herself into a fight", she hatches a plan for her and others to retreat or seize. Is that not enough proof that she can both protect herself and others?'_

_Shiro had ran his hands through the white tufts of hair that perched upon his head. "It-it is, but when she tries to take the blow so we don't-" He let out a breath, relaxing from the frenzied pitch his voice was dissolving to. After a pregnant pause, he finally spoke up again, tone timid as if what he could say could be horrific. "I just- I- I don't want to see her hurt. Quiznack, She's irreplaceable to..."_

_'To you?' Black finished, the frustration that the human felt smoothing into the beginning of embarassment- that, and something else. He felt the nameless emotion bubble underneath his chest, heat painted across his cheeks as he tried to shove it away._

_Shiro fumbled with the locked controls, eyes focused intently on the floor panels as to somehow avoid Black's. "I mean, she's irreplacible to everyone to the universe, really, but... I dunno. It's like- she matters to me too much. Every little thing Pidge does affects me, in someway. it's more than the Paladin bond, that's what's strange. If she is overly excited, I feel better. If she hits a roadblock in her scans or something, I feel unproductive and miserable."_

_He placed his fist under his chin as he pondered. "It's more than just feelings. When she wakes up and her hair is ruffled, I can't focus on any thing else that day. When she comes to me wanting to talk and she's down, I'll get her to laugh, and it's-"_

_Black hummed as he continued, the sentient machine silent._

_".. Then, when she cracks a code, or invents something," Shiro began to explain, though if it was to himself or his partner, he would never know. He stood quickly, helmet clattering to the ground. "Her eyes light up, and it's light someone put LEDs in her head. And when she looks your way and her eyes are like that.."  
_

_He chuckled, hand reaching to the nape of his neck. The human then paused, eyes flickering up and slightly widening. " I've never seen anything so golden. Or so be-"_

_Shiro's breath hitched in his throat, heart beating faster than he would've ever liked. His conclusion echoed through out his head, bouncing off of his skull as he slumped back into the pilot's chair. He swallowed, blinking in both confusion and relief. The previously dubbed 'unknown' feeling that had colored his cheeks now earning his name._

_"Holy shit," He whispered, steel grey eyes narrowing. "I'm in love with her."_

* * *

 

It took the rest of the day and the next for Shiro to catch the courage to look Pidge in the eyes, and another three for Shiro to attempt to act somewhat normal around her. He had never been the best liar, so the ex-prisoner could only helplessly ponder how utterly terrible he held his guard.

* * *

_"Shiro?"_

_The soft voice echoed throughout the kitchen, the source standing before the automatic door. He turned from where he stood by the Altean version of the sink, robotic hand ignited as he lit the surrounding area. With only his robotic limb to glow the surrounding area purple, the two were surrounded by the dancing figures of shadows. It only took him a few seconds to register who the question had belonged to. He offered the sleepy figure a gentle smile._

_"Hey, Pidge."_ _Meeting her honey brown gaze, he couldn't help but desperately suppress his rising blush. She offered a smile, rubbing her eyes lazily as she padded near him._

_"Why are you still awake?" She crept onto the counter next to him, leaning her head against the futuristic cabinets._

_He tore his gaze away from her, stifling a sigh. Vivid night terrors of his imprisonment had tore him from his slim amount of sleep, the slivers of half assembled memories bubbling at the back of his brain. Shiro had stumbled into the kitchen, breath shaky and stance weak, in order to find some sort of drinkable substance that could help him swallow the unpleasant experiences down his throat. Three concoctions down, and he hadn't felt even a tad bit refreshed._

_"Couldn't sleep," He answered, the full depth of his statement taken in by the younger. He and Pidge had learned by then that they would read each other with ridiculous ease, Pidge peeling the pages of him apart and deciphering them as quick as a science textbook. Shiro only hoped she hadn't skipped to the page that explained his feelings for her._

_Pidge nodded, smiling softly at him as she moved her hand over his metal one. "Me either. Though, I mean, my reason is probably different than yours."_

_Shiro's cheeks flushed red at the contact, cursing at his artificial hand for dulling it. He looked back into the cup he had been sipping on, failing to fight back a love-struck grin. After a beat or two of silence, Pidge's hand slipped from his to the half-empty container. While he bit back a pout, her laugh echoed in his ears. Turning to the side, he watched as she gestured to his cup._

_"Do you know what this is?" She giggled, golden orbs bright in the dull light. "This is one of Hunk's food goo experiments, he tried to make it into a drink a few times. How is it?"_

_His face darkened, embarrassment flooding through the two's Paladin link. "... Bad. Gagworthy, really."_

_Her giggling continued on. "I knew it would!"_

_As he kept his eyes on her, he could feel the tension the nightmare had instilled into him ease, his shoulders relaxing. The bitter and unpleasant taste that resides in his mouth melted away, all of Shiro's senses dilated as he focused on the laughing brunette before him. Cursing himself for being so defenseless against Pidge's smile, he joined in, the two chuckling in the darkness of the Castle's kitchen._

* * *

 

After endless weeks of the two bumping into each other, Pidge waking him after nightmares, and Shiro finding her slumped over her workbench, the Black Lion had had enough with the two dancing around each other. He and Green had watched as the two grew closer, but each put a dampener on their side of the Paladin bond, so the Lions only stood by as the head and left arm of Voltron pinned after each other.

So, one day when trouble was scarce and The leader of the humans decided to train, Black decided to pry upon Shiro's topic of affection.

Combining matters of the heart and preparing for potential battles did not combine as smooth as Shiro would hope.

Shiro's Galran hand split through the chest-plate of the Altean robot, the tearing of wires and software visible as the drone felt limp against his elbow. Some sort of coolant leaked onto his cyborg limb, the glowing purple life-fuel coating his metallic arm. The lights draining out of its singular eye, it slumped over, leaving the attacker to dispose of the corpse. He yanked his arm out of the new chest cavity, droid clattering in a crumpled mess to the ground. The computer did away with its remains.

 _'You are miserably in love.'_ Black purred; Shiro could feel his Lion lounging in his hanger, front limbs crossed over each other as he communicated with the human. _'Not even your predecessors were this... **helpless**. Much less with another Paladin. I must say, **that** is new.'_

Shiro swiveled his head back to where the next droid had yet to load, praying that he wasn't mortally wounded by having to defend himself against both his Lion and a robot. "Black, we are _not_ having this conversation." He watched as another drone, now holding a blade similar to Keith's, materialized before him. It pointed the sword towards its attacker, its stance mirroring how the Red Paladin used to issue a fight. Hand glowing purple, the Black Paladin raced toward it, dodging its sword's first blow. A shield generated in its other hand, the bottom of it butting into Shiro's stomach. He stumbled back as he attempted to regain his footing, then leaping out of the blade's range as he tried to distance himself. The droid charged forward, red blade missing the Paladin's chest by only an inch or two as Shiro swung to the side. He spun behind it, kicking its knees out from under it, grabbing the neck to prevent any movement. As it began to turn, he dove his glowing fist through it, killing it in mere seconds.

 _'Actually, I believe we are.'_ He responded, tail flickering back and forth. _'When your affections affect your actions as a Paladin, it's my job to interfere. You nearly compromised the mission. Besides, you are awfully frustrating to watch, at times.'_

The next robot held Lance's blaster, the sharpshooter's gun nailing his shoulder as soon as it loaded. He staggered back, holding the joint with his robotic limb. It stung, and a deep, colorful bruise would appear soon to add onto the multitude of others. He silently thanked Coran for setting all the blaster fire to stun. After a nasty incident when Pidge was shot in the thigh in a training round, the five humans demanded it to be as such. A shield flickered to life from Shiro's shield, the next round of shots absorbed by the turquoise barrier.

Shiro sprinted toward it, slamming the barrel away from him with the shield and diving his hand toward its face. "That was _one_ time!" He grunted in response, hand missing the droid's head as it dodged. "And I did not jeopardize the mission, I was making sure Pidge was okay! Her Lion went down, you know that."

_'Three times, actually. Afterwards, you couldn't stop, how do you say, 'gushing', over her. Should I quote you?'_

The Black Paladin groaned. "Stop."

Amusement seeped from his elder's voice. _"Hmm, what was it you said? Something about how-'_

The Earthling hid behind the shield as the droid's shots clanged against it, Shiro gaining ground as he approached. He grunted as he shoved the translucent shield against the robot, moving his weight onto it in the hope he might force it to the paneled floor. "Stop that!"

His Lion make some sort of warm chuckling noise, a hearty, playful growl echoing in his head. _'First it was her self sacrificing tendencies-'_

His face burned, Shiro blushing as he failed to keep his focus on the firing robot ahead of him. The memory of him complaining about how he felt for her was crystal clear in his head.

"Black!" He interrupted his own thought process, the scar on his nose now white from the red that was painted across his cheeks and nose. The droid shoved back, the two now in a reversed gave of tag-o'-war. "That isn't helping _any_ of my situations right now! Maybe do something that _does_?"

_'I **am** helping. I'm afraid my only other option is aiding Zarkon, so this is the better option, My Paladin. For the good of the universe, **hmm**?'_

Shiro drove his fuel-covered, ignited hand into the droid's torso, yanking it out and punching its faceplate. The robot, toppled over, now laid dead on the floor, devoid of any glowing signs of life. He sighed, shook off the fragment of wires and fuel, hurried over to it, then watched as the Castle dumped it with the other deactivated droids. He allowed the computer to scan him, fresh and dried coolant lifting off of his black and white armor. The system beeped as it pulled up a holo-screen, reporting only three new bruises and two new slashes. Not bad for two hours of fighting droids, considering his track record.

"Your definition of help is very different from mine. Does it mean something different in Altean?" He quipped as he watched his hand fade back to black and silver, his Lion's amusement tugging at the back of his skull.

 _'I do not think it does._ '

Shiro rolled his eyes, tearing his helmet off of his head and resting it on his hip. He ran his gloved fingers through his white tufts of hair, wiping the sweat off of his forehead. With a hiss of the hydraulics, the automatic door slid open, allowing him to exit the training deck. Shucking his Paladin armor off of his forearms, he let the black and white metal slid into the canister.

" _Do not tell me you full intend to keep your emotions secret from her, as that would be highly idiotic."_

 

The upper arms and chest piece came off next, Shiro ducking out of them. "Call me an idiot, then. I'm not going to take an uncalculated risk."

Black, with an semi-annoyed growl, quickly responded. " _My Idiotic Paladin, I'm afraid I'll have to take this into my own hands."_

The legs and boots were next, the Altean armor tucked away in its casing. He spun on his heel, escaping the room and heading to the bridge without a second thought or a response to his Lion, except that of a _'Nothing embarrassing- I can have Pidge take off your modifications- no!'_ feeling reaching across the bond. The older of the two waved him off, cutting the conversation as Shiro retreated from the topic of his beloved Green Paladin.

* * *

 

Black curled his tail around his scuffed hindquarters, reaching out to the second smallest Lion of the Voltron five. She soon responded, Green sleepily answering. Black could sense she was back-down in her hanger, the raven and gold shoulder plate of Voltron pressed against the ground. She rolled over onto her side, jaw opening and closing in a silent yawn- a habit she had adopted from her tiny 'Bird'.

" _You called, Black?"_

Black crossed his front paws over each other, eyes flickering in a blink-like manner from the usage of his name. Green and himself had always been a closer pair than the rest; sure, Red and Blue loved to bicker and Green and Yellow bonded over their intelligent Paladins, but Black and her seemed to click. Green would spew information about her paladin excitedly, and Black would shrink into a ball and confess his constant stress about his own. Each came to the other when comfort, entertainment, or company was a necessity. Guardian Sprits of the Sky and Forest did tend to go together, after all.

Coincidentally, it was a parallel situation with their Paladins. Shiro would seek Pidge out for comfort and amusement, and she would come to him for advice and solace. The two fit together like a glove, and both hid their true feelings for the other. It was truly frustrating at times for the two Lions having to watch the fragile humans pine relentlessly after each other, but shut themselves down every time. Black understood the affection Shiro had for the tiny female, and Green vice versa. The brightly colored Lion would whine and complain about the two being so clueless, fuming at their obliviousness.

 _"I need your assistance with something."_ Voltron's head requested, hoping his tone wasn't discouraging his cohort.

Green purred gently, rolling over on her stomach. " _.. hmm. What do you need?"_

 _"We're going to do something about Shiro and Pidge. I assume you understand my meaning?"_ Black was startled as he heard a squeal escape her maw, giddiness cycling through their link. A brief thudding echoed between the hangers, the methodic pattern he recognized as her light running. She slid to a stop in the entrance of his hanger, yellow eyes brighter than he had seen in over ten-thousand years.

 _"Holy quiz- ah, sorry- you're serious?"_ Though neither of their faces could express emotion as most living creatures did, he could feel the endless happiness and excitement bubbling through their bond. He remained quiet, shifting his wings as he watched her soak in his previous statement. He didn't suppress his embarrassment or satisfaction as Green tucked herself next to him, tail swishing from side to side excitedly. Her paws underneath her, the smaller Lion leaned against him.

 _"What do you need from My Bird and I?"_ She lovingly referred to her Paladin, swiveling her head to meet his, near nose-to-nose. The larger battleship offered an amused chuckle as she beamed at him, her poise alert and eager for mischief. _Nothing new._ Black ran a quick check for the other Lions' positions- they didn't need someone else butting into their match-making plan, in the off chance it would all come crashing down. At that moment, both Lions were filled with an unbreakable sense of determination- they _would_ pair their partners together, no matter what lengths it took them.

 _"Green, our plan is simple..._ '


	2. Hoiylien Doesn't Hold Hands

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hoiylien, as she found out, was a planet full of elemental-wielding architects who nearly worshiped the weapon dubbed Voltron.  
> Oh, and they tried to kill her.  
> He tried to look past that part.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also known as 'this was supposed to be two chapters in a row but you get to wait for three more weeks for the next one' and 'Lee is a busy student who hates Algebra homework more than her dysfunctional laptop.'  
> Anyway, Thank you for all who commented, Kudo-ed, and recommended names, as it meant a lot!  
> In the mean time between chapters, you can go look at my Instagram (Galacticlee) for updates and Shidge doodles, and don't be afraid to message me about the fic!  
> Warning for meddling Coran, Lions, an OC world, and maybe some ooc characters.
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> (This chapter is probably shit I'm not gonna lie here)

Green's hanger was where she was mostly found, bent over her desk and crafting away at something until exhaustion hit her like an oncoming truck, the Castle's excuse for coffee filling the area with its semi-sweet aroma. It was habit for her to earn as little sleep as possible, her bed of little use while her hover-chair in Green's room sufficed. The only time she would use the padded berth was when Shiro had guided her to it after days of relentless tinkering, tucking her in and silently leaving as she lost her grip on the conscious world (Though she was utterly helpless for the Black Paladin, she wasn't sure why _he_ would come and check on _her_ ). Though she would promise she would return to bed the next day at the next time, the two humans knew that this would not come to be, as Pidge would always pull the excuse that _'There's too much work to be done'_ , and often times, she was completely justified in this and continued her sleepless routine. The whole team knew that she _had_ to create and compose trinkets and devices that might save their lives one day. The team, the universe, really, depended on her sleep schedule to be absolute shit and for her to get things done.

She was a Paladin of Voltron, after all; she had to be strong in more than one way.

So Although the Green Paladin prided herself as some sort of mixture of early bird and a night owl and boasted about her energy levels and their limits, Hunk had once dubbed her an exhausted pigeon. He was further proven right by her ability to nest anywhere she needed to; her desk, as mentioned before, was a common spot, but her seat in the Main Deck, any seat in the dining hall, and, although she should never tell the others, around Shiro's shoulders, often times worked as resting places.

Not an hour more than a day after Voltron's head and left arm had cobbled together their match-making plan, she was living up to Hunk's nickname. Wavy, tangled locks of hair spilled over the tips of her green-clad shoulders and data-pads stacked unevenly beneath her as her pillows, she had fallen asleep while scanning for near-by peaceful planets to land on to work maintenance on the Castle, blue lights flickering under her pale, freckled cheeks. Her shoulder calmly rose and fell in a rhythmic patter, glasses with fake lenses slid awkwardly across her face.

It was that date that the scan provided results, screens flashing green and beeping gently into Pidge's tiny ears. She groaned awake, rubbing her eyes behind Matt's glasses, whining softly as she did so. She blinked wearily as she pulled the alien screen toward her, sleep clouding her comprehension. The words, blurred in her groggy mind, blended into each other, forcing her to read and reread the Altean report in order to comprehend it. Pidge yawned, stretching her arms as her warm, honey-gold orbs danced across the screen.

"... oh," She whispered as she finally understood the message, eyes wide as a small grin crept onto her face. Pidge straightened in her seat as her thin digits flew across the screen's keyboard, rechecking the planet for hostiles and its type of atmosphere. The girl mumbled wildly as the reports flooded her head, the grin spreading across her face. She laughed, the sleeves on her sweater overlapping her hands as she typed rapidly on the screen, projecting her voice onto the Castle's loudspeaker.

" _Guys- everyone to the main deck, I found a planet we can rest on for a few days!"_

After that, she scrambled out of the chair, eyes wide as she pressed a collection of screens to her chest, disappearing without noting how Greens' golden optics had narrowed.

_I guess my sleep-depriving habits have proved fruitful again!_

* * *

 "It's called Hoiylien."

The group of seven bipeds were gathered in the main room of the Altean ship, grouped around the pulsating navigation screen that plotted their courses. Coran, after hearing the smallest Paladin discovered a new world to land on, had yanked the previously mentioned planet onto a screen, the swirling violet and gold orb brightly shining on the light surface. The data-pad ran multiple schematics on the side of the planet's image, Pidge translating it as the secondary scans for breathable air and drinkable water, both of which were compatible with all of their systems. She switched her eyes back to the flesh-and-bone beings on the ship, her line of sight falling upon her commander, who- _who_ -

She glanced at him for the third time, golden eyes fixated on his pair of steel grey ones, the latter directed toward the screen before them. Although Pidge could read the older teen like she could now decipher Allura and Coran's native tongue, his expression was now steeled; His feature were blank, but the honey-haired genius could feel another emotion surrounding him from the Paladin Link. She reached out to him from it, eyes flickering from the screen and his concentrated expression.

Pidge shivered as his eyes shot straight to hers', the metallic sliver of the orbs chilling her down to the bone as his firm look was directed towards her. She froze, blinking as she debated whether or not to send an apology between them instead of her question. Shiro's harsh gaze softened, though, the frigid grey melting into a warmer hue as his face flushed. Embarrassment bridged between the two and tension faded, Pidge internally praying that he didn't suspect she was staring at him. Blinking, the Green Paladin then asked herself why Shiro would be flustered at such a thing. Others had caught him zoning out or in an overstressed mood before and Shiro had never acted this way-

 _'That isn't because of me. That isn't because of me. That isn't because of me.'_ She blushed back, pressing her lips into a thin smile as she tapped back into the bond, an unspoken _'You alright?'_ passing between the pair. The scar that laced neatly across his nose was now pale due to the red that crossed his cheeks, a tiny nod answering the question. She watched as he turned back to the screen, Pidge deciding to follow.

Coran pulled on the edge of his moustache, his other arm folded behind his back- an instinct he must've gained being the Royal Advisor. "It's a rather quiet planet, mostly made up of liquid and terrain, both having healing qualities when mixed into pastes and poultices." With a wave of his gloved hand, he brought another screen into view. "The Hoilians are a nomadic people, which made them excellent traders and teachers, as well as medics with their medical practices being common on the planet." He finished, meeting the others' eyes. "They are very soft spoken; I'm surprised the Galra haven't conquered them."

Coran's voice dropped a multitude of pitches, the Royal Advisor's tone soft as he folded his other hand behind his back and cleared his throat. "They're quite efficient with using their surrounding to their advantage- similar to the Olkari and their tech, the Hoilians have a unique ability to manipulate the area around them using what some would call elemental power." He resumed his normal, cheery atmosphere, a small smile repainted under his moustache.

Pidge perked up, a grin sprouting itself onto her lips. "I wonder how advanced their civilization has become as of late!"

Coran's eyes crinkled at her, the freckled girl assuming his gigantic smile resumed. "There's no telling, Number Five! I suggest being cautious as you near the planet, though; they aren't very kind to intruders. Fiercer than a pack of yalmors, they are! In fact, the first Alteans who traveled here were held up in the air by their toes, or shoved into the ground like plants when they were captured by the Hoilians! King Alfor was not pleased to be overrun with strange vines and then plunged into the ground like a flower when we went to retrieve them."

She chuckled, watching as both of the remaining Alteans shared a bittersweet, melancholy look. The Princess smiled as she read the screen, tapping on the teal data-pad as she uploaded it to the Castle's mainframe. "As I recall, neither were you when they nearly burned your moustache off."

A beat or two of comfortable silence surrounded Voltron's team, soft glances thrown around the room effortlessly. The quiet filled her head with a quick note of thanks, the green-clad teenager knowing that moments of a simple content could be rare in times of war. She let out a quiet breath, finding herself making eye contact with her leader. Shiro's eyes crinkled as he mirrored her expression, head hen swiveling around to meet the others eyes. Pidge watched as Shiro gave an almost unnoticeable sigh, then cleared his throat.

"Set course for Hoiylien."

* * *

 

Green's seat pressed comfortably against her the small of her back as she settled into it, the familiar cushion soft against the cold metal of the Paladin armor. Her hands set limp on the controls, the lime glow of the cockpit bathing the smallest teammate in her Lion's signature color. Tangled, fluffy hair tickling her neck under her helmet, she rested her head against the seat, watching as they grew closer to the indigo and gold planet. Pidge yawned, the sleepiness that had overwhelmed her at her previous task threatening to overtake her again. _'I should've taken up Hunk's offer on the space coffee,'_ She breathed a laugh.

Her Lion purred somewhere in the back of her head, Green taking the navigation form her Paladin and to herself. Pidge made little movement to argue, her partner's soothing tone melodic in her ears. The earthling wasn't sure if Green was guiding her into unconsciousness, or kept her awake and aware of her situation.

 _'... **this** is why I recommend you sleep in your den, my Bird. Our hanger's desk is not as comfortable, **is it**?' _ She hummed, Pidge answering her with a snort as a response. The sleep-deprived Green Paladin brought one of her knees up to her chest, drumming her fingers against the controls as her sleepiness shrunk away. _' This is unhealthy, and you know it. I've talked to you about this before, and you said-'_

Pidge rolled her eyes, grinning as though she was the Cheshire Cat. " _-_ That I'd start to work on my sleep schedule. Never said _when_ , though, _did I_?"

The Lion's purring went silent and auto-pilot shut off in less than a tick, the Green Paladin cackling as she yanked on the gearshifts and slid her foot back down to the metallic floorboards. The chuckling morphed into quiet giggling at the unannounced scowl that was undoubtedly carved into their bond, Green cutting the conversation off entirely. As her expressions calmed and faded into a tiny smirk, Pidge shoved forward on the controls and lurched her Lion forward, pacing herself beside Yellow and Black.

As the Voltron Lions entered the atmosphere, the five mechanical beasts lit aflame as they nose-dived in the direction of the honey colored landscape. Pidge leaned forward in the seat, waving away a cluster of Green's screens to get a better view of the terrain, the mechanical felines shaking with turbulence as they passed through another atmospheric layer. She watched a the five slowed their decent, angling upward as to not crash into the ground.

The grass-type ground and foliage was bathed in honey-gold hues, the shades that engulfed Pidge's eyes spread out below the team endlessly. The area reminded her of the vast plains of Earth, where crops would fan out in multiple directions for acres, growing food and recourses. The wind blown terrain made Pidge's heart beat a bit slower at the reminder of her home planet, the beautiful memory of Earth a soft pang in the back of her head. She pushed the thoughts of the blue world away, grinning as the deep indigo waters came into view close to the clearing they were passing over.

 _'I can't wait to see the minerals in their water, or how they control their environment. I wonder if they can change the weather, that would be so cool!'_ She grinned down at the area, tapping her fingers methodically against the shifts. The communications link was quiet as the seven soaked in the luscious terrain, this being one of the more eye-pleasing worlds they had stopped at. The Paladin link was full of peace, from what little of it that she could feel, only twinges of anxiety peeking through the calm.  _'I wonder what their medical practices are like! Maybe we can take some of their techniques or medicine with us to add to the healing pods-'_

Green's screen, flashing red and mixed with static, obscured her view, several warnings scribbled in Altean filling the data-pads before her. It wasn't but a second later that a massive, pale gold vine shot up out of the ground below, grasping violently at the Black Lion next to her. Pidge's chest tightened at the sight of the massive beast being yanked from the air, her lungs shutting themselves off as Shiro's yell entered her head.

* * *

He released a groan as Black's dashboard screeched with alarms and warnings, His Lion's emotions dimmed in the link as they both attempted to wrestle free, a squeezing pressure surrounding his frame that likely came from the connection. He hadn't had the time to see what had grappled onto the pair, only catching a glimpse of something moving underneath him before he had been grappled from out of his position. Slamming his hands on the shifts and yanking them backward, he struggled to gain any leverage as the red screens cleared away. The cockpit's pressure rising, his jaw clamped down in confusion as his enemy came into view.

' _Is that a giant plant?'_

* * *

_"Shiro!"_

She heard the others screech his name, the ex-prisoner's Lion surrounded by the snake-like creature in mere breaths. Tactics crawled to the front of her head as she shove forward on the shifts, putting Green into a dive toward the massive plant as her pulse restarted and beat like thunder against her armor. She watched as the Red Lion's blast of flames charred the plant a rotted chocolate, Black still struggling as the vine swirled tighter around Voltron's head and torso. The massive burst of flames that had spewed from Red's mouth shot back at the lithe Lion, Keith just barely managing to dodge it before the flame dissipated into a puff of smoke.

" _What the hell?"_ The Red Paladin yelled, switching his shot to the plasma fire that all the Lions owned. Pidge watched him shoot, the blast not redirected at the Red Lion. Pidge shifted Green to the side to repeat Keith's action as Black's jaw blade materialized out of thin air, the Lion stabbing the vine and slicing around it until its movement slowed enough for both him and his human partner to slid out of its tight grasp.

She narrowed her eyes as she opened the com, "Coran, I thought you said this planet was full of a peaceful people!"

"Ah, but remember the warning, Number Five! These people might not recognize the Voltron Lions, it has been a while since their ancestors have seen them! It seems that have the ability to use elemental blasts against you, as well, so Pidge, Lance and Keith, don't give them much more ammunition than they already have!"

The Green Paladin gave an over exaggerated groan, her eyes dancing across the golden waves of flora that lay undisturbed beneath them, save for the vine's entry point. She enlarged her view of the ugly scar in the upturned ground, dodging the wiggling plant.

"Coran was right about their abilities'," She announced over the Paladin communication link. "They're not in the clearing, my scanners aren't picking up anything near the opening either!"

She heard the Blue Paladin's voice weave through to her ears. _"Watch out, this thing healed quick!"_

Pidge gasped loudly as she swung her Lion from the reach of the swiveling flora once more, heart thundering in her ears as her breath became labored by her anxiety rising in her throat. By only shifting the controls, Green let out a hearty roar and a blast sprouted from her jaws. She swept Green around and slid the beast's claws against the golden vine, pressing Green's snout to the thick of the plant and firing. Voltron's left arm leapt off of the plant that fell limp unto the metallic-colored ground below.

She exhaled happily as whoops were passed around the link, the others in her team congratulating her on the tiny victory. She grinned widely as she angled her Lion to look down upon the ground, the creature now shriveled and dead, blacked and browned by the blasts it had taken. " _Yeah!"_ She shouted triumphantly.

Her smile grew and a blush across her cheeks were added as Shiro responded to her cry of glee. " _Well done, Pidge! Now let's try to find any Hoilians around here and try to explain we're friendly."_

"Sounds like a plan," She reached forward, typing rapidly on one of Green's screens. She initiated her Lion's bio-scan, her colorful partner happily complying. Her smile eased into a confident grin as her Lion's bio-scanners investigated between the metallic-textured trees, the Lion's pilot swinging the beast upward into the air as Red and Blue crept down and settled onto the gigantic vine. It beeped seconds later, Pidge gritting her teeth as she quickly enlarged the image of the life forms. The lanky figures were shadowed in garments that were similar in color to their surroundings, peering up at her with their arms clinging onto the branches that held them in the air. Their bodies were thin, thinner than even some of the skinny Galra, and were taller than the violet conquerors. Their tops were hooded over, face shielded in masks, and bodies clad in tight material akin to leather. Dressed in a darker, duller color than their vibrant surroundings, they blended into their background extremely well- until you spotted them, that is.

"Bio-scan shows six figures in those trees."

"Nice work. Let's-"

She was yanked down in a violently as time seemed to slow to a halt, Pidge being lifted from her seat as her Lion was plunged down with a tremendous amount of force. Green screeched in the back of her head, the echoing rattling up her spine and drowning out whatever Shiro was beginning to command the other four to do. Within the moments she had before impact with whatever grabbed Green, her golden eyes shot to the screen, taking in the sight of whatever had leeched onto her mechanical partner.

 _"There's **another** one?"_ Hunk's voice was filled with anxiety, conforming her suspicion.

It _was_ another, yet skinnier and shorter, vine, that had slithered around the top of her Lion's back-plate. Heart lurching into her throat and brain to the top of her skull, with her hands still on the controls and panic flooding all of her senses, she yanked back up, the shifts combined with the will of Green allowed her to slow their decent. Although with the combination of their force tugging away from the serpent-like weed, it still clung to them, Pidge caught in the middle of a deadly game of tug-o'-war.

She grunted as she struggled to keep the controls in her hands, closing her eyes as she planted her feet against the lime floorboards. The connection between her feline partner and herself grew desperately closer, the Pressure around Green's frame copied itself to her in a matter of breaths. She bit her lip as she trembled, waves of pain shooting through her nerves as she yelled cursed in her head.

_"Someone help me out here!"_

* * *

Heart dropping to the pits of his stomach, he froze, blood running cold and mind going numb, as if hypothermia had sunk into him in a matter of seconds. The scar upon his nose was stiff as he wrinkled it, hands clutched around the controls as if they were keeping him alive.

 _'Screw the Paladin Link,'_ He thought, Pidge's panic colliding with his own and the other three's until there wasn't a way to differentiate between them all. The Lions weren't much different,  Blue and Red growling in their pair of rough and musical tones, and Yellow snarling quietly without the warmth that echoed off of him, all of which were so loud that he swore he was nearly piloting _them_.

There was a reason that Voltron Rule number one was that _you didn't touch the smallest of the ten. Ever._

Black rumbled around him, a low growl seeping into the cockpit as he grit his teeth. Shoving his feet into the floor and pressing himself into the seat, he shoved forward with a yell.

* * *

 

The grip on the smallest Lion slacked almost instantly. Turning her golden view to face what was below her, she was greeted with the sight of the massive Yellow and Black Lions ripping into the anchor of the plant, jaw blades flashing and claws glittering. Green tumbled out of the restraints, awkwardly dropping to the ground beside the first limp vine and catching her balance with the help of her tiny partner. Red and Blue quickly surrounded her, the remaining pair only following after the weed that grabbed the green pair landed to the clearing with a _thud._

Pidge bit her bottom lip as she heard Black's loudspeaker flicker to life, Shiro's voice a concoction of anger and worry. " _Attention Hoiliens- we come in peace! We are the Paladins of Voltron, we mean you no harm!"_

He then silenced it, an image of him materializing in the left of her screen. His dark eyes were narrowed, his salmon scar crinkled. The underbelly of his tone was bitter; he wouldn't likely forgive and forget the instance very easily, something he tended to do when she was attacked.

 " _Be ready. They could strike again."_

The bio-scanner still running in the side of her systems, she drug it to the middle of the dashboard, widening the range. The Green Paladin quickly rediscovered the same set of life forms that clung to the trees, the bipeds now on ground level and poking out on the edge of the clump of foliage. Sending the image to the other six, she awaited the hooded figure's movement.

 _"They haven't striked yet,"_ The honey-haired genius could hear Keith's anxiety, her own sense of it creeping into her skin. She began to bounce her leg, the cushioned boot that clung to her foot tapping against the floorboard in an uneasy rhythm.

 _"Wait. They might just be investigating us, this can run smoothly."_ Shiro hushed him, but the young Holt could hear the edge in his tone. Pidge held her breath, eyes glued to the figures in the shadows. She tensed as they gracefully yet awkwardly shifted forward, sluggishly nearing the five massive technological felines with calculated steps. She raised her eyebrows as she watched the stalks of honey-brown grass shift away from them and the ground darkening beneath them, apparently on the natives' commands. The hooded drew closer until there was less than three yards between the group and the clawed, mechanical paws of the Black Lion. One of them, she guessed the Leader of few, stepped forward and then knelt to the Lions, curling their hand into a fist against its chest.

"Mighty Lions," Their deep voice drawled, echoing through their mask with a  accented in a way that reminded Pidge of the languages of her home planet, "We beg 'our forgiveness! We did 'ot know it was truly the legen'ary beasts of Voltron!"

Lance snickered from across the comm. link. _"Legendary, eh?"_

Green's voice slipped into her head, the methodical tone bouncing around the walls of Pidge's head. _"Black and Red came here a few times, and we once fought a battle in this planet's atmosphere. I guess they passed on the legend as some sort of 'tall tale', as you call it. We never split up here though; so it's nice to see it without four others sharing my vision.'_

The others beside the kneeling Hoilian followed his action, bending down as he rose up. Peeling their electronic mask off and throwing their hood from his face, the five were greeted with a humanoid head, their complexion the same bronze that made up Pidge's loose curls, a pair of stark, piercing azure cat eyes, and curved ears that pointed at the circular tips. With freckles that were a peaceful shade of blue and with shoulder-long, dreadlocked hair of the same color, the Hoilian reminded Pidge greatly of the holograms of the common folk of Altean. "I only ask that you 'ave mercy upon us, as we were only trying to protect out 'ome."

The Black Lion shifted his forelimbs, lowered himself, and clicked his jaw open, violet lights spilling out of the crevice like a science from an action movie. Pidge took it as a sign to follow suit and lifted herself out of her seat, ignoring the new, colorful bruises on her legs and scrambling out of the main hub and down into the exit bay, her mechanical companion's mouth clicking open with a metallic hiss.

* * *

 

"A-a feast?"

After she had met the squad of natives that had nearly killed her, their leader, Kola, had taken the five earthlings to the main village on the small planet, but the term 'village' could not describe it, in Pidge's opinion. The city was the size of the Castle at the very least, with buildings the size of skyscrapers constructed of curved and molded silver stone or trees that melded into specific shapes, scarlet and turquoise lights pouring out of windows or cracks in the rock or hanging above balconies, swaying in the breeze. Multiple, smaller complexes surrounded the larges like pebbles beneath a boulder, the homes or businesses leaking butter yellow glow from bulbs in and out of the homely structures that echoed tranquility.

In contrast to the Olkari's techno-geo-paradise in which the people worked with their environment and mixed machinery in, this city was established on both; no where were the signs of scars and stitches into trees or roots around structures or street lamps, which led Pidge to believe that their civilization had evolved their technological skills along with their 'magical' elemental abilities.

Kola took them to the very heart of the city, which was a circular building that was enclosed in twirling beams of arching wood. Underneath the swirling corpses of mahogany structures, the heart was comprised of a reflective indigo surface that reminded the Green Paladin of tinted glass, as she couldn't see through it though the texture would led you to believe otherwise. The entrance to it was a triangle shaped door that was the same wood as the circling trees, the border around it the same core colors of Voltron.

 _'This whole town is covered in Voltron's colors. I wonder if they worship it-Kola and the others knelt, and the way that they look at the Lions- they just might.'_ She thought as they had entered the building, which was quite similar to its exterior- royal and regal, yet homely with the earthy atmosphere that brought her comfort. The same see through glass shone with the reflections of the multicolored lights that shone in rows above their heads, the ground glittering with a raven stone in a swirling pattern that led to a throne that was comprised of the same dense material, a group of holo-chairs floating towards it.

Upon the throne sat a espresso-skinned Hoilien warrior woman with hair that was longer than Allura's, lavender and braids twisting into a singular one that tied beneath her waist. Her freckles and feline-like eyes were the same gold as Pidge's, though they lacked the fire that she normally carried in her own pair. Her expression was that of an excited child, a large grin on her lips and her colorful cheeks curved upwards. A long, black dress made of some sort of slick material billowed around her like a rain-filled storm cloud, slit on the right side up to her mid-thigh. It draped off of her shoulders, a white, skin tight under-garment reached up to her neck and down to her ankles, which then disappeared into leather-like boots. Oh her waist sat a sheathed blade, and a partially hidden blaster was stored underneath the royal chair, all of which gave the smallest Paladin the idea that this was _not_ someone you'd want to mess with.

She had all but squealed when the five Paladins of Voltron entered the room, standing and clapping her hands together as she smiled at them and vigorously shook each of their hands. The woman had introduced herself as Maor, the Warrior-Queen of the Planet. She had quickly set them all down in the seats before her, folding one leg over the other and asking questions like a star-struck fan of the group. Maor then, after hearing the reason for stopping by the planet was to work maintenance on the Castle, had then agreed to discuss the majority of the negotiations..

.. Over a feast.

"Yes," She answered with her eyes tilted toward Shiro, her deep accent the equivalent of the peaceful sound of a dusty page flipping over, the best that the young Holt could describe it, rough and soothing and warm. "Do you not have feasts often? It is what we do to honor our most esteemed guest from off-world, what little we get." She shook her head, braids tossing. "It would be an honor if you chose to agree- our planet has passed down the legend of Voltron and it's Paladins for eons, even after we shut down interstellar travel after Altea's destruction." Maor rested a hand on her sword's handle. "Or is something else more valued by you? Perhaps a sacrifice, or an offering, though we have never-"

Pidge watched as Shiro's face paled for a split-second, his scar reddening in contrast. He waved his hands and shook his head, " _No!_ No, a-a feast will be _fine_."

In the time that Voltron had been reformed and her team had been together, many worlds had offered to throw them celebrations for their dedication to fighting- balls, parades, and, like this instance, feasts. The four, with the obvious exception of Lance, had always politely declined the offer and went back to the Castle, and then were interrupted and Voltron was forced to come together. Not once had they even celebrated a victory in a way that was more than sitting in the Blue Paladin's room and playing the gaming console that he and Pidge had bought in their first trip to a Space Mall.

But now? Perhaps they could convince Maor that it was unnecessary, but the Queen did not appear to be one to budge, an aura of determination surrounding the Hoilian. Though, Pidge wondered what might become of this event- perhaps they could attend the feast, and see what being celebrated was like, if only to ask about their mixtures of technology and nature. She was their techie and the Paladin of the Forest, how could she say no to that opportunity?

The Queen's expression could not get brighter, warm orbs of eyes glittering as the overhead lavender, cardinal, and lime lanterns cast their colors down upon her. "Wonderful! It shall be held here, tomorrow night, then!" The assistant that stood at her side, a pale, blue-haired young girl, pulled a screen from her wrist and scribbled down the event. Maor's grip on her sword's handle loosened as she returned a muscular hand to her leg. "It will be splendid, I pray that you will be pleased with our celebration."

"Alriiiight," The Blue Paladin smirked from across the room, folding his arms across his chest and one leg over the other. "It's about time we partied! We've been defending the universe for ages now, it'll be fun to loosen up!"

Maor smiled warmly at him, then swiveling her head to make eye contact with Shiro. "Has your ship landed yet?"

Her heart stopped as he turned to face her, dark eyes gleaming in the rainbowed light. She swore her face lit aflame, freckles tinted pink as her lips clamped into a thin line. He raised an eyebrow, the repeat of the question passing between them without a word spoken. She shook her head with a mumbled 'no', and turned back to Maor, the warrior accepting the message after she spoke it a bit louder. "N-No, but they will soon according to their last message."

"You are welcome to travel the city until they arrive, and your allies are welcome to land your craft anywhere." The Hoilian stood and intertwined her hands together, the black, leather-like dress that fell over her shoulders billowing around her as her royal aura hit Pidge like a slap in the face. Bowing respectively toward the Paladins, she announced, "I'm afraid I must take my leave of you for this night, as I've many things to do in preparation for tomorrow evening." Each member of Voltron nodded in respect and watched her wade out of the room, leaving the awe-inspiring building to the five.

"I guess we're going to a feast," Hunk stated blandly.

* * *

 After being tucked into their hangers and promised repairs from the dents formed by the vine, the head and left arm of Voltron crept into the former's resting place and pondered on the plan incarnation of Cupid's arrow. Pacing around her commander, Green's turquoise-ended tail laser flickered back and forth as she spilled her thoughts into the mental link that held fast between them. Black nearly gave a snort as her motor-mouth started up and spurted out her frustration on Shiro and Pidge's romantic issue, barely leaving him a place to input as she entered a ramble- yet another habit she gain from the year and a half from her tiny Paladin.

_"... and then did you feel his emotions through the bonds? Sure, I was focusing on trying not to be crushed by what the five call a 'vine', but even I felt it while we were struggling! But she didn't? How? Black, **how. Did. She. Not**?"_

The sitting Lion watched as she circled him, swiveling his head to follow her path. Black would've smiled if their bodies showed emotions like their partners' did, but instead he squinted his yellow eyes in amusement and let the feeling flood between them.

 _"Then, when they were in the Main Deck? She made him blush while the two of you were talking? That Takashi- Oh, **stars**. What if this doesn't work out?" _ He watched her slow her step. " _They're both so... so **alloy-headed**! They seem to pick up every detail on the world around them, save the most important ones. At least our former Paladins had mates before they carved us out of that stupid comet!"_

Both of their expressions quickly souring at the mention of their past teammates, her small bit of matching-making worry was quickly developing into stress about past events- something they all carried, but Green seemed to hold it so much heavier. Acting as the _loveable mother/sister who gets way too excited_ , the she-Lion was the five's quiet comfort for years. She was the one who the others would sit close to and bask in her comforting liveliness, and yet, the bigger Lion was seemingly the only one she would mumble wildly to in order not to upset the others. Black blinked as he kneaded his forepaws into the ground, metallic claws clicking against it in one, solid movement. " _Green-"_

" _If Katie doesn't find out- oh no, what she'll think-"_

 _"Green, Listen to me-"_ He attempted again, watching as her mechanical ears twitched.

_"-both of our Paladins so self-aware that it can be depress-"_

_" **Edera** ," _He interrupted her as she tried to start again. Green froze at the use of the name, the term that her beloved Trigal had dubbed her all of those ten thousand years ago. He watched as a sliver of pain and recognition flashed through her optics, the way it always did when she was called it. Turning to the multi-colored Lion, head cocked inquisitively to the side as she met his gave over his shoulder. Edera swished her tail side to side before exhaling a tiny sigh and settling down.

 _"The Feast, then?"_ He said, head near one-eighty behind him.

Black watched as she straightened her form, haunches twitching as her posture improved and her paws kneaded softly at the metal below.

 _"Phase one,"_ she muttered, jaw clamped down. _"Get the two alone. If we segregate them and make them talk-"_

"- _then it opens up more opportunities for heart-felt discussions, as they've called it. Discussions like-"_

 _"Matters of love,"_ She finished, golden optics glittering as her mechanized jaw fell agape and her glowing tail rested against the black and gold shoulder plate with a 'clink'. Scrambling up with a klutzy speed, Edera's excitement flickered between the giants.

_"We get them alone tomorrow after the feast, we take off to one of the corners of the planet- something 'romance' inducing to humans, I guess- and then we wait for the two to start talking."_

She purred a giggle, pawing in a circle around Black as she continued to rattle off murmurs that the other couldn't decipher. He stood, following her cycle and spinning in a slow pattern with her, like how his Paladin described his planet and its moon. He shook, flustered when she pressed her snout against his shoulder gears, flashing his head toward her. Edera's mouth was opened in a grin-like state as she finally resumed her speaking to him and then sauntered off towards Blue's hanger, the friendly Lion peeking her head out of it.

" _Thank you, Nebula_."

* * *

After they had arrived back where the Castle had landed and parked itself for their stay, Shiro and Pidge were elected by the other Paladins to spill the plan to the pair of Alteans while the other, normal trio of sleepers recovered to bed at a decent time. Besides, it was well known that Allura would be one to explode with happiness and likely persuade Pidge into one of their _'Girl Bonding Times'_ , which the tiny woman would then accept, and the Princess of Altea would then plead for Pidge to dress up for the occasion, so no one but their heroic leader had a necessity for being there.

Perhaps he should've forcefully declined the offer for a celebration, because the mere thought of the smallest Paladin in a dress with her hair done up was enough for him to wish he could shoot himself out of the airlock.

".. and they said it'll be sometime afternoon tomorrow, and to come whenever we're ready." He blinked back to reality, the white noise of the two female's conversation evolving into dialogue over a matter of moments. Tearing his eyes away from where they had rested on the wall, the floated to Pidge with her hands in her pockets, head tilted to the side as she watched Allura's expression grow to that of wonder, and Coran's to joy beside them.

The Ginger rested his hand against the moustache, eyes flickering closed as he spoke. "Brilliant! I'm quite surprised the Hoilians are such diplomats now- but I guess that works in our favor!" He turned to the woman next to him, but Allura was silent. There was a minuet or so where not a word was spoken, until a short squeal escaped the taller woman's lips and she grabbed both of Pidge's arms.

"This is so exciting! None of you have ever been to a royal feast, let alone on a planet such as this one! Oh, that must mean we will have a new ally in the Voltron alliance, and perhaps they might use their abilities to assist us, either in negotiations or in battle! This will be so much fun, and- _and_ ," She paused, her expression darkening to mischievousness as her gaze returned to that of Pidge's, "we'll get you _all_ dressed up!"

Pidge's eyes glowed with something the older teen couldn't recognize, but he knew its effect on him when it made his heart stop with the split seconds it was there.

"Holy quiznack, Allura, I couldn't," She breathed, and he recognized one of her many rambles oncoming before anyone could stop it. "Your dresses are too nice- what if I spill something on them? I mean, I love dresses, I wore them _all the time before the Garrison kicked me out- well, I wore shorts andjeansto, butdressesarefun_ -"

The woman with the white hair slapped a thin hand over Pidge's mouth, silencing her. Coran chuckled, turning away with both of his arms folded behind his back. Allura raised an thin eyebrow at her as she began, sensing the nerves coming in waves from the younger. "Pidge, do you _really_ think that I would present the opportunity to you without thinking it over?"

"You _did_ sound overly excited just now-" She mumbled into her hand, causing Shiro to cover his mouth with his Galra fist in order not to snort rather unprofessionally.

The Altean gave a fake scoff and a roll of her eyes before she cut the Green Paladin off, "Yes, _but still!_ No one else here is going to wear a dress beside myself, and you've said to be comfortable wearing one, so...?"

She pried her hand off of her mouth, licking her lips before answering with a small, almost thankful smile. "Just let _me_ do my hair, please? I've seen what your mice have done to yours, and _no thanks_."

_He should shoot himself out of the quiznacking airlock._

Slicing off all connections between himself, the Paladins, and the Lions, he stood a bit straighter, dark eyes narrowed and the fist set against his mouth pressed his lips back against his teeth. Face lit aflame with a scarlet blush, he was sure the shade of his skin could disgrace the Red Lion's name. The Earthling's heart in his throat, he watched as Allura looked over Pidge's head and gave him a grin, the type of one he knew translated as _I know how you feel about her, you lovesick idiot. This is why I'm doing it._

He swished his head over to Coran, who of which had his face tilted upwards and his moustache wrinkled, evidence of a smile. The markings on his cheeks were folded as well, his expression coy, as one could put it, the same unsaid statement echoing off of him too.

So he _had_ been that obvious with his feelings.

And of course _Allura_ would know, as she had her mice, but even _Coran_?

She playfully rolled her eyes at him, turning back to Pidge as the other male in the room stepped closer to him. "Say what you want, but they've done some pretty interesting things for _just_ being mice."

 _'At least they're decent enough not to spill it to Katie, '_ He thought as he cleared his throat, the male Altean swinging a lanky arm around his shoulder. With the cheeky expression still painted upon his features without fail, he leaned over to whisper in his ear.

"I'd say you're very lucky our Number Five isn't that observant with other's emotions," Coran's voice was low, but his tone was teasing. Shiro clammed up, eyes narrowed as he met the eyes of the other man as he searched for an excuse in his head. Swallowing, he opened his mouth to speak, but the ginger stopped him. "But, to be quite frank, as you Humans put it, so are you."

Shiro's jaw clamped shut and his blood ran cold, metallic arm dropping like a dead weight between the two. He stammered as he attempted a spout out a _'What's_ _that supposed to mean_ ,' but the elder spun on his heel and waved the three goodnight. The Black Paladin stood there for another minuet, mind racing through all the possibilities of what the Royal Advisor could've meant.

"I-I'm gonna try to get some s-sleep," He offered to the others in the room, face still hot. He winced as his voice attempted to crack, turning to the women. "Try not to stay up all night preparing for this thing, alright? We still gotta do repairs this week, and we can't have either of you being exhausted. Or, _overly exhausted_ , _Pidge_. Try not to find another planet with killer weeds on it either, huh?"

She gave him a warm smile and a shake of the head, flashing her warm gaze carelessly in his direction as if she didn't know what those eyes could do to him. "No promises, Shiro!"

The rest of the pair's discussion went unheard by Shiro as he crept out of the room, hand still pressed against his mouth in an attempt to calm the fire that had set his face to embers. Blocking what sounds the two made as he traveled down the dimly lit halls, he traveled to his room and shut the automatic door behind him. The violet light bouncing off of his outline, he slowly padded his way to bed, tearing off his boots.

 _'What did Coran mean by that?'_ He shifted to the closet, snatching a hanger and shifting his normal dress ware upon it, noticing an abnormal, shiny material hanging from another. A note was clipped onto it, the unopened data-ad blinking dimly. He pressed on it with his flesh hand, the screen opening up.

'Wear this tomorrow, it's the previous Black Paladin's Altean armor. He only wore it but once, if you're interested. And, though your Pidge is currently unaware of your affections, let's not keep it that way, yeah? Who knows, perhaps what I said was false and you will be more observant. -Coran.'

He sniffed, chewing his lip as he glanced back at the slab of metal and mesh. Shiro's mind reeled at the statements made by the royal advisor, still confused on the somewhat cryptic message. _Being observant with other's feelings, what the quiznack was that supposed to mean? Let's not keep it that way? **What?**_

Shuffling back to the bed with heavy steps, he swung his lanky legs over the covers, tapping the sheets in a methodic patter with his artificial hand. Exhaling heavily, he fell back onto the puffy pillows, intertwining his hands over his bare chest. He _could_ shut the nightmares out and the worry that night, he _could_. Praying that he wouldn't regret the invitation to the banquet, he closed his gunmetal eyes and prayed that he could get a scrape of sleep without awaking with panic.

Heaven knew he would need it for the upcoming event.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyway, that happened. Feel free to leave your input down below!


	3. The Feast Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Both think they're either dead or dreaming, Allura knows all, and Keith can't look Lance in the eye.  
> Not to mention, Maor is strange and the Lions can't handle anything right. Disaster hasn't been so evident.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was a royal shit to write; I had Inktober, the SAT, and the horrors of high school in the same two months, and I was never satisfied with it. I'll go through and edit it in the next few days, but for now, here it is!  
> PS: Pidge's haircut sucks. Trust me. Don't even get the long version of it. b a n g s +c u r l = b a d t I m e

"- _Kay_ , so then you put it up like this with those pins."

"You're going to the feast wearing _those_? While they may be a bit cute, I don't see how-"

"Princess, I'm not planning to keep it up like this! I worked with- _uh, slept_ with them on, and now I take 'em out and my hair," A gesture to her head and her eyes widen, " _Poofs_. Lance saw me put 'em up and demanded to help. It's why the ones on the back look some-what decent."

Pidge dropped her hand from Allura's scalp, the soft lavender ringlet of hair unfurling around her thin digit as she pulled it into her crisscrossed lap once more. Pidge's hair, currently the topic of conversation, was pinned up in multiple, tiny buns upon her head, stringy scraps of honey-gold curls surrounding her head in a frizz halo. The Green Paladin had padded to the Princess's room minuets earlier whilst trying not to pass out from another night of Castle repairs, where she had found Allura with many colorful dresses spread across her bed and the nearby chairs that occupied her room.

"I'm surprised you're up," Pidge had commented as she sleepily leaned against the silver doorway, rubbing her eyes beneath Matt's glasses.

"I got.. _excited_ ," She responded in an amused tone, flattening out a pale lilac skirt upon her pillows. "I haven't been to something like this in over ten thousand years, after all. I never really picked a lot of my own outfits, either, let alone someone else's. Now we must simply find one that you will like."

The brunette chuckled, entered the room, and Allura caught the sight of her hair and immediately began spewing forth questions about the Earthling's traditions about outward appearances, sitting the two on the floor. Pidge had tried to pry the topic away from her, but when Alteans had never used anything akin to bobby pins, she had to do _something_.

Allura poked one of the buns as if it would poke back, her features still twisted in confusion and thought. "Then we pull them out, and your hair is ready?"

The Green Paladin turned her head, glancing between the different fabrics that laid spread across the room as if they were the new marvels of the universe. In her mind, they certainly were, what with their shining materials and lively hues that outshone anything the girl had seen on Earth. Her view gravitated to one strung against the chair furthest away from the two, olive green in color and full of lace, from what she could see from her current perch. She shook her head, turning to the Princess. She hummed a response, sliding out a handful of pins from a bun by her right ear. Running her hand though the twisted chunk, she smiled when a small, childlike gasp escaped Allura.

"How interesting!" She reached to undo the others, Pidge freezing in her place as warm hands danced across her scalp and cold, metallic pins were flung into her hands. Her nimble fingers ran through each strand, puffing the curls until they were nearly as voluminous as Allura's. The presence behind her back disappeared, yet she could hear the hem of Allura's nightgown scrape the underlying Altean carpet. She turned her head, greeted with the sight of the Princess holding the olive dress in her grasp, the friendly pair of blue and pink eyes directed at her.

"Come, come!" Allura seemed to float across the room and grabbed her hand, leading her to the mirror that was tucked away in one of the corners of the room. Pidge smiled softly as she glanced at her hair; fluffy, shiny curls in loose swirls encircled her face and neck like a frame around one of her mother's paintings. It made her ache for the long golden strands that would hang against her back and beside her waist, and the hours that she and her mother would spend working on it. She instinctively pulled it behind her ear, memories of her brother braiding it and her father ruffling it surfacing to the front of her head.

The Princess startled her out of her thought process, slowly shifting the dress over the smaller's lithe form. The dark green clothing was, like she had seen, mostly comprised of lace, but the ivy and vine pattern obstructed total visibility of what was to be underneath, a chocolate belt clinging around the upper waist. Inside, there was a solid metallic mesh that composed the body, covering the necessities in one connective piece but dipping below the small of the back, the armor covering her throat and down to her wrists, thinning down at the legs. Overlapping lavers of flowered fabric would obscure who from her bony legs would otherwise show, creating a veiled, almost princess-esk dress that would only scarpe against the floor if she turned out to be tall enough to fit in it. Giving a glance behind the two, she discovered two slabs of metal that looked like fashioned gauntlets and a pair of knee-high boots sitting by where the dress had been, both a shimmering honey color. Pidge noticed a divot in the lower back, a tiny pair of glowing stripes indicating it to be her bayard holder. Where the material brushed her skin, Pidge shivered; it was the tougher than she realized, the texture similar to that of worn leather- soft, yet sturdy. The armor underneath felt the same as her regular suit, the strange material somewhat comforting in that sense.

Alteans, always warriors _and_ diplomats.

"What do you think?" Came Allura's question, her eyes sparkling as she looked at Pidge. "I saw you looking at this one- It belonged to the past Green Paladin, though it was never worn, so she bestowed it upon me. I never wore it though- she gave it to me at a rather unconventional time."

Pale hands curling over her shoulders, she held the clothing up on her own accord, jaw softly dropping as she swished the material around her. Freckled cheeks contorting as she shifted to the Princess, she said, "Are you sure? This is too nice for me to wear, w-what if it doesn't, doesn't fit right or look okay?"

"Well, go try it on, then!"

* * *

 ' _I wonder if Zarkon wore this to fancy dinner parties,_ ' He thought as he shifted into the final piece of the Alien dress-ware, exiting his room and traveling down the winding halls. _"Imagine a gigantic, hulking figure dressed in a average sized suit. I'm just lucky that it fits me.'_

Altean royals, according to Coran, wore armor-like suits in the stead of Earth's fine fabric ones. Cufflinks and crisp ties were traded in for flowing capes and thin, delicate sheets of curved metal, slick black dress shoes for knee-high boots with rotatable ankles and shock absorbing soles. Coran had told them that the traditional wear had always been that way, that every high-class family of his home planet would wear their knight-like suit with pride, adorning the color of their families or their military rank.

So, in comparison to his thickened, multiple-layered Paladin suit, this was as if he was wearing next to nothing but an air of confidence; adorned in silver, gold, and deep wine suit, and black, waist-long cape that clung to his shoulders by a glowing, circular clip, the normally shy and modest Takashi Shirogane felt like a warrior while he tried to shove away the thought that the _universe's_ dictator once resided in the same clothing. _It was definitely made for Zarkon_. The chest piece was laid across his upper frame was triangular in shape, as it curved downward in a steady but gentle slope, the edges bordered with shimmering gold, the rest in the black-purple fusion. The geometric pattern continued with his boots, forearm sections, and the belt which hung around his waist, all angled for easy movement, offering a grace which he did not seem to possess. The rest was covered in a tight fitting silver cloth akin to silk, which also stretched under the metal as his under suit would. His hands were exposed, unlike the Paladin suit, but with his right hand blended into the suit, Shiro rather wished to cover up his left, the pale skin in vast contrast to the gold and purple.

Fiddling with lengths of the wrists, he awaited the others' arrival on the main deck, stepping in slow circles as he bent his head down. Series of negotiations and mannerisms occupied his thoughts, the certain role that he was entitled to play drilled into the back of his mind like a 2-by-4. He could only imagine what he would have to do to keep the rest of his team in order for the night.

Oh, _God help him_.

The echoing of footsteps and a sliding hiss of the door alerted him that he was not alone. Stopping in his circular path, he looked up, greeted with the sight of a grumpy Keith, who had his arms crossed and his violet eyes narrowed at the ground. Unlike the dark and powerful hues that were unlike the familiar alien race, Keith's suit was clearly made for an Altean, rather than adopting the style, like his had. Primarily Red and white, his knight-like outfit had less of the jagged edges Shiro's owned, and more of the soft, curved edges of the Paladin uniform. In place of a heroic cape to dress up his attire, he wore a traditional headband that held his bangs away from his face, which was red in color, and his bayard hung at his hip, still in sword form.

Meeting Shiro's eyes, he gave a soft grunt before saying, "Coran made me."

"You look fine," He smiled, shaking his head. "And I'm sure Coran had to do a lot to get you into that, so full credit to him."

He snorted, fully entering the room to stand by his leader's side. A beat or two of quiet passed before the anxious Red Paladin piped up again, slouching in way that made him look smaller. "Shiro, do you think the Hoilians will demand something of us? I mean, we're here now because our last battle wrecked the ship- if they want any special favors in order to gain trust in us, I'm not sure if we could afford it."

Sighing softly, he shook his head and put his hand on the armored shoulder of the right arm pilot. "Keith- Don't worry about it, alright? We've got a whole night ahead of us for the negotiations, and we shouldn't let our anxiety about the situation cloud our judgment, or allow it to ruin the event for us." He took a breath, satisfied that his friend's tense expression had softened. "And we're allowed to loosen up a bit here, you know?"

Keith nodded, hand resting on the bayard's handle. "I know."

The door hissed open once again, the two turning behind them to where Lance, Hunk and Coran had merrily stepped through, each with an abundant smile. Lance, done up in a blue and gold suit with his cape clinging from the top of his shoulder blade to his hip and the whole outfit in an alien carving with soft, rounded edges and a matte texture compared to that of the others, sauntered in with his usual grin ahead of the other two, tossing his head as he stood for all the universe to see. Shiro couldn't help but block a grin as soon as he saw Keith's head jerk away from the Blue Paladin, his face smothered the exact hue of his Lion.Hunk, covered in gold and white with a thin yellow headband similar to Keith's in the place of his bandana, chuckled warmly at something Coran muttered, the Royal Advisor still sprouting the same, crisp outfit.

"You all look dashing, Like the original band of Paladins." Coran noted, crow's-feet planted at his eyes. Shiro smiled softly at the man, soaking in his beaming expression as he tried his best not to squirm in his casing or at the implication that he looked even a tad bit like an evil monarchist. _'Quiznack, is that uncomfortable.'_

"We have to give that credit to you, Coran," Hunk responded, features soft as he reglanced at himself and the others, "You're the once who snuck these into our closets. In a non-creepy way, that is."

"Proper attire is one of the many must-haves for discussing this sort of thing." The ginger offered, blue eyes switching from Paladin to Paladin. "The original group of Paladins would have pre-designated wardrobes for this sort of situation, such as a suit from their home world that was ceremonial, or the Altean suits you now wear; unless your normal attire is the best your Planet has to offer or ceremonial, I'm afraid it would be a bit... _out of place_."

"Actually, we were really just wearing the casual stuff that the Garrison allowed when we rescued Shiro. People on Earth have jobs and time dedicated to fashion," Lance rested his hands on his hips as he responded to the elder. "Everyone has their hand in it- hair, make-up, n' clothes- Mama would make my older sisters watch me when she was out, so they taught me a lot of stuff. You wouldn't believe it, but not all that I know about lookin' good is purely instinct."

Keith gave a half-hearted scoff, his hardened look slowly erasing but the red on the Red Paladin's face never ceasing. "Like you've used any of their advice."

Lance's face grew pink as he folded his arms. "Actually, _Mullet_ , I use it all the time. Just last night, I helped Pidge-a-roonie with her hair. And she liked it, _thank you very much_."

 _I'm going to die,_ Shiro thought immediately, meeting the eyes of the Royal Advisor. Coran said not a word, but instead listened in as the Paladin in yellow asked, "Where is she, anyway? And Allura? They weren't at breakfast and I haven't seen them around."

The ginger twirled the edge of his moustache, tilting toward the door with his head. "I'm afraid it takes a bit longer for our resident females ready, apparently, but they said that they would be out shortly. First impressions are important, and the two may want a bit more of preparation time than you four."

* * *

 "Allura, you look beautiful!"

Dressed in a halter-top mermaid-esk dress that began at a crisp white and faded to silver at her ankles, Allura spun in a circle with her hands clenched against her chest. A skinny belt and lengthy gold Altean boots as well as a fake, unrecognizable type of flower in the woman's lilac bun perfectly accented her outfit and it gave her a sense of casualness among her normal wardrobe, apart from the crown that still strung across her forehead.

"I've never wore this before," She met the Paladin's eyes, the Princess's gaze shone over with a twinge of sadness. "It belonged to my mother. She," Her voice lightened as she puffed a laugh, running her hands over the soft material. "She wore this when she was courting my father. Deemed herself incapable to wear it afterword, though, so she gifted it to me."

Pidge smiled warmly from the chair she leaned against, one leg crossed over the other. "Well, I repeat my statement, Princess."

"What I look like is plain in comparison to you!" She _somehow_ ran over to Pidge and yanked the two before the mirror, revealing the dolled up pair in full view. With the colors chosen by Pidge and applied by the Princess, each of their faces were highlighted and blushed just enough to exaggerate their natural beauty, Allura's pink markings shining and Pidge's freckles peeking out from the light pink powder that her friend had fluffed upon her face with a brush. Golden and blue/pink eyes surrounded by some sticky form of mascara, the lids powdered in silver. It took Pidge's breath away, the image of herself in a dress ancient until that moment, the comforting memories of herself in a similar piece of attire helping her ease into the outfit. Granted, it wasn't the purple and white one she wore near daily on Earth, but the new color fit well with her, the olive matching well with her new, scarred personality. Though her hair could no longer be tucked into beautiful French braids or in a rose bun on the side of her head, the messy, uneven curls were not spun and tightened into a golden circle, side-banks kept back by a fake golden flower that matched Allura's. The tight, layered Dresses surrounding them like a pair of angels with colorful, armored togas, the two girls raced their eyes over each other, soaking in every detail. The Paladin could feel the slightest presence of Green in her head, the feline rumbling pridefully.

"How did we do?" Pidge managed, pressing her onto her tippy-toes with her hands at her sides. Allura chuckled, the sound soft and warm.

"Considerably well. And," She bent down and lifted the shining hem of her skirt, snapping it to her belt and revealing her uniformed armored leggings with a sleeker, dressier version of her boots. She dropped it and placed her hands on her hips. "I'm fully prepared if this goes the course of nearly every other _'meet our planetary leaders'_ event that we have been to."

"Smart," The brunette commented, pulling at the laced wrists. She gave herself another once-over in the mirror, smoothing the material down her figure.

"Would you mind telling me what you came up with last night for the extra security measures, in case this does take the usual route?" Allura inquired, lip curled up in a sheepish grimace and pointing up to exaggerate her question. Pidge's shoulders straightened as she absent mindedly reached to adjust Matt's glasses, instead awkwardly poking her cheek as she answered.

"I programmed the Castle's alert system to scan for any intruding ships in this sector, reran diagnostics on the comms, and it should all be hooked up to this gauntlet," Pidge waved her arm, grinning as she waved her left wrist. "All of the alerts I get will also be sent to everyone else and archived in the Castle's mainframe, just in case."

The Princess Humming softly and Pidge reaching for Matt's glasses, she heard Allura say something off-handedly as she exited the royal chamber:

"I wonder how the boys will look. It might be interesting how they react to the way you're dressed, it is quite a change." Pidge heard the smirk in her tone as she slid the spectacles in her boots. "Or a particular someone."

Heart latching onto the back of her throat, she stopped, turning her head in Allura's direction. The _'How does she know'_ question repeating like a mantra in her head, she blinked rapidly, a grin form on her face as she prepared to deny the monarch; yet, as she stared at Allura's features, it slid off of her face. The Princess met her gaze, expression smug with a bright smile that looked almost devilish to the Holt. The younger felt her face grow hot, her struggle to form a sentence evident by her gaping mouth and trembling chin.

"W-what's that, uh, what's t-that supposed to mean?" She managed, stuttering all the while, hands clenching and unclenching.

Allura offered a shake of her lilac strands, kneading her hands against the doorframe. "It may not be my place to say, but I've noticed what's gone on between you and our Black Paladin." She grinned softly, eyebrows lifting upward. "If I may, your occasional reddening is quite obvious. Not to him, mind you, but his situation's not much different."

With a sniff, a blink and a shiver, her eyes narrowed in a squint and the color that was lightly dusted across her cheeks darkened. After a pregnant pause, she laughed dryly and pointed to herself, poking at her chest. "W-what? You think _I_ have a crush on _him_? _Ha_! I'm sorry Princess, but I-ah, I don't like anyone. Nope, n-not me."

Allura smirked, tilting her head to the side and raising an eyebrow. "Well, Pidge, if you _did_ have a _'crush_ ' on him, I wouldn't hold it against you. In fact, I wouldn't mind it at all. It is only another way that you five might become closer as a team, and besides, with the closeness of the Paladin bond and your relationship with him, it would be surprising that you two hadn't gotten together before now- er, then. You may forget, Pidge, but my life-force is connected to that of your Lions, and they are capable of some rather interesting gossip."

Pidge carefully stepped forward, each movement playfully tense like a cat about to strike. She bent into the doorway, golden eyes flashing to and fro as she pressed her hands onto her hips. Cursing Green in the back of her head and failing to fight off a burning red she finally mumbled, "So, let's say I hypothetically, _hypothetically_ , like Shiro. Would he like me back, you think?"

"Hypothetically?" The Princess parroted. She resisted the urge to laugh in irony; oh, if only the Green Paladin saw the way that Shiro could fumble and trip over himself around the tiny woman, the mighty ex-prisoner akin to one of her mice friends in the sense of courage and strength. Coran and her had seen the same look come from King Alfor, when he would give glances at his wife like they were gifts to her, messages only the other could decipher. It wasn't as if Pidge didn't send the looks back, but she tended to be a bit less obvious than her male counterpart, her glances and quiet giggling done behind his back or when she was alone. Yet, both, as the word from the Lions was, turned to their feline partners and constantly chirped about their affection of the other.

And apparently, the Black and Green had a plan to get the two, In the human's phrasing, _together_.

As the Princess of the Castle of _Lions_ , she was obliged to join in.

Defending the universe be damned if her Paladins couldn't be happy.

"Yeah. I mean, we're really close because of our past on Earth, and I'm always the one who he goes to when he's freaking out, so that's nice. Oh, and he normally wakes up from one of his night terror/flashback things really early, and when that happens, I have like this sixth sense to go and find him, a-and for some reason the weird Paladin mind thing-y is strong enough with him _that we can actually talk? I thought we were only able to do that with our Lions, but now I'm rambling and oh God what if I'm already in that weird sister-zone thing, Allura help me?"_ She finished with a puff, kneading her thin hands together and fidgeting as she glanced up at the alien princess.

 _Quiznak_ , _the two were close enough they could mentally communicate?_ She smiled and shook her head, eyes fluttering shut. Allura really did try to not marvel at the sheer irony of it, _she really did_ , but.. "Oh, _Pidge_! If you only _knew_."

She clasped her hands on the Earthling's shoulders', her glowing markings pinched as she simpered, drawing her face together in order to shove as much meaning into her following words as possible. Allura sighed, then breathed, " _Pidge_ , you are an intelligent, beautiful Paladin who is the most technologically brilliant and sassiest person that I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. You, my friend, are a _gift_ to this universe, and I'd bet that you'd have a chance with anyone you threw your eyes at."

Pidge's head slumped to her shoulder as she scoffed, smiling as she rested her hands on Allura's own pair. "Thank you, Princess. But, still, he's- _uh,_ he would be- so out of my reach. Are you positive?"

The Altean's only answer was a poorly concealed laugh and a quick nod, and she whisked behind the doorway and down the hall, inviting the Green Paladin to follow and she cupped a hand to her mouth. The golden-headed genius trailed down the halls with a _'hey_ ', scrambling wildly after her, trying to decipher what the strange giggle meant, gold and white boots thudding behind them.

* * *

 The five had awaited for the pair of females not long before the Castle of Lion's systems had alerted a group of sprinting figures gracefully moving throughout the passages, the proximity report quickly dismissed as soon as one of the automatic doors clicked loudly and slithered open, revealing the smallest tailings of excitement echoing from the hall. Shiro unfolded his arms, back aligning straighter as the familiar laughs entered his head, one of which sent shivers throughout his form. The five shifted their position to the entryway, where Allura slowed to a halt, breathlessly chuckling as she pressed her hands to her chest. Standing there for but a second and then catching her breath, she lifted her head to snatch a sight of the four male Paladins of Voltron.

"Hello, everyone!" The woman in silver puffed, eyes shining with a childish joy. "Oh, you all look wonderful!"

"Thanks, Princess," The Black Paladin offered, eyes focused behind her as he searched for the youngest Holt, attempting to not meet the Altean's gaze after the previous night's events. Her head flipped to him, grin plastered on a bit too tight and too mischievous for his liking. He almost made a comment and felt it rise in his throat, but she straightened up, glancing behind her to the automatic door's frame. As soon as a pale hand gripped around the door and a lanky figure followed, he knew _that he would probably die by whatever had caused Allura's look._

"Hey guys," _She_ smiled, head tilted to the side as she caught her breath. Golden hair falling to the side of her face like a frame, she stood straight and waltzed into the room, metallic-colored boots tapping onto the metallic ground quietly as she moved. Every step seemed like a thousand to the leader of the humans, time stretched out as he watched the tiny Green Paladin move as if the rest of the ship was simply floating away from her. Giving a glance at his other teammates to see if he was alone in his bewilderment, he discovered he was not, their eyes wide and eyebrows raised.

No, this couldn't be the same person who wore over-sized sweaters and her brother's tennis shoes everyday, staying up to ungodly hours of the night and living off of stale memes she had on her laptop and space coffee!

Her prepossessing figure swayed side to side as she brought her hands behind her, pressing onto her tiptoes as she sheepishly grinned at the others in the room. "What do you think about Allura's Altean-make-up-magic? Pretty good, huh?"

"You two look beautiful!" He heard Hunk comment, yet the ex-prisoner was too caught up trying not to choke on air or let his knees buckle to utter an agreement. He ran his Galran hand through his white tuft of hair as Keith, Lance and Coran spoke a chorus of comments, Pidge's bashful eyes fluttering to the ground and then to him, the hundreds of freckles that shone beneath her make-up painted pink as soon as the Paladin bond struck between them as if it was on queue. A shy, soft glance and shrug from Pidge later, he found himself doing the same, the two then finding everywhere else but the other very intriguing to behold, unexplainable embarrassment surging between them like a flood.

"You look, uh, _nice_ ," Shiro coughed, hands falling to his sides and tucking underneath the cape, tapping his fingers against his palms. _'Curse Allura and her magical capabilities'.'_

* * *

_'Oh, nope. N to the O, P to E.'_

Turning her head down, she bit her lips together and attempted to hide underneath behind the bangs that weren't pulled back by the fake alien flower. Grinning like a maniac, Pidge finally managed to stutter out, "Uh, thanks," before fiddling with her gauntlets with her head then pulled up and her lower lip between her teeth.

_'He's wearing a suit. Like, a 'Knights of the Round Table' mixed with 'Transformers' suit. Is this real?'_

She shot her gaze back to Allura, trying to ignore her burning cheeks as she gestured to the other with her head. The Princess's smirk didn't budge, yet the monarch shifted her stance and cleared her throat, drawing the attention of the other Paladins and her advisor. Placing her hands on her waist, she began, "The banquet starts in less than a varga, and by that time, we will be fully prepared with our political arguments and have our diplomatic skills strengthened. And, in case of emergency, the Hoilians have allowed you five to keep the Lions outside out the Royal Hall."

"The manners and tradition meals are very similar to those of Altea, and thus the ones we use here. Or, try to use, anyway." Coran noted, the later part of his statement spoken in a lower tone. "So, your best, most heroic attitudes would be highly appreciated in this particular situation."

" _Whaaat_? We're always on our best behavior, Coran," Lance waved his hands, smiling all the while like he was prepared for his friend's playful backlash. He quickly earned glances from both Keith and Pidge, the pair's eyes narrowed and slight frowns evidence of sarcasm ready to spew from them both. The pilots of the arms of Voltron both opened their mouths as if on cue; neither had time to verbalize their comments as Shiro interrupted.

"What do you think we should agree to in the negotiations, Princess? What's our diplomatic limit here?" The lead Paladin inquired, the blush still stuck on his face from earlier, though it was quickly fading with his expression neutralizing. _"I totally didn't do that. Not the cause of embarrassment. Ignore Allura's statements, that's all just coincident.'_

"I have sorted out most of the details mentally, but, as I may need you to assist me in the endeavor, I will fully debrief you before we arrive. Yet, as the majority of you should know, we will not agree to any favors that are unnecessary or that would result in casualties, nor will any Hoilians be permitted inside the Castle without the Queen or Royal Representative during our stay."

Pidge shook, memories of Sendak conquering their base still fresh in her head though it was ages ago. Creeping through the twisting shafts of the Castle with bloodthirsty drones thundering after her was _not_ one of the memories she cherished, nor was losing her beloved Rover.

"The Castle will be on lockdown whenever one of us aren't in it, and the Lions will be under constant scanning for tampering or enemy influence." Pidge reported, raising her wrist and pulling up a screen to show the five Lion's diagnostics. Sprinting her eyes across the screen, she quickly read their CPU activities, and caught sight that Black and Green's were running a bit more than normal. Re checking, the techie discovered that all of the Lions were now active, a rarity to occur, but not something uncommon as of late. On those days, the Lions would get up and move about freely, stay in each other's hangers, and even 'cat-fight' with each other (Pidge had kept a video and showed everyone, it was great.), so whatever this was, Pidge had not a clue to be either weary or not worried about it.

_'Didn't Allura say something about the Lions gossiping? Green if you're planning something-'_

Her half-assed threat was cut off in her mind as soon as Shiro's mouth opened, attention and head turning to the man in purple. "Alright. Remember your diplomatic skills and what we've previously agreed on our arguments. Head to your Lions, We're going to the feast."


	4. The Feast Part 2

_"So you.."_ The Blue Lion started, swishing her tail over her front paws as the five awaited their Paladin's arrival. Both the left arm and head of Voltron had acted awry for the past few cycles, and the two had finally let on about their actions only a matter of what their partners' called 'minuets' before they took off for another fancy event that the humans would attend. Green was a bit rushed in their explanation, cramming it into their links while Black only interrupted when her train of thought derailed. Blue had her glittering yellow optics narrowed, still coursing over the whole situation and hardly believing a word of it. The two most battle-focused Lions in the universe attempting to have their Paladins in a romantic relationship? Blue, Yellow, stars, _Red_ had done that with the original band of Paladins, but these two?

Oh, would Lance _laugh_.

No, not laugh, he would giggle. Endlessly.

 _"Yeah."_ Green replied in her melodic tone, the cheery voice now a bit sheepish. Embarrassment and a hint of pride emanated from the smallest of the group, but she didn't hide a bit of it from the other four mechanical beasts. She was proud of this plan.

 _" ...are trying to get both of your Paladins...."_ The guardian spirit of the sea heard Red continue, the female's voice hinted with amusement as the same emotion seeped between the group as if it was as simple as the bipeds passing around oxygen. Black, as she could see the tips of his ears above the hanger walls, stood unafraid and unashamed of his actions, now silent as he attempted to keep his link quiet and void of any extreme thought about the endeavor, and oh, _was he failing, that dork._

 _ **"Mhmm,"**_ Green prompted, and Blue could sense her reaching out to their commander for some sort of assistance. Black was quiet, and the female could see his ears twitch over the walls; he was unashamed, as well? Blue knew how compatible both Shiro and Pidge were together, but apparently she did not see the whole of it, as these two clearly did.

 _".. to be in a relationship?"_ Yellow's deep voice drawled, though he seemed unsurprised about the endeavor. The female couldn't think of any other reaction that would fit- the Yellow huffed out what sounded like a chuckle, and Blue could feel him shaking his massive head. _"You're being completely serious?"_

 _"Yes."_ The olive Lion responded. _"That's why, when we escape- um, leave, with them later at the event, we need you to assure your Paladins that they aren't in danger without telling them the entire situation; Well, tell them enough to satisfy them, but do not lead them on the path of figuring out our plan, you know?"_

 _ **"Very simple, Green."**_ Red deadpanned, teasingly sarcastically. _"Like they're gonna leave it at **'They're just gone for a bit'**. You do know how much humans question literally everything, **don't you?"**_

Black made an odd sound, somewhat of a snort- he must've picked up the organic habit from his small, stressed partner. _"Do you somehow perceive that your Paladins will keep quiet about this situation? All of them are not the best in the galaxy at keeping quiet at the topic of romance. We still are witnessing both your and Blue's partners begin to have strange emotions for each other, as well, so perhaps we will be able to set the groundwork for you two. Though it won't be a first for the two of you to work with a romantic situation, let's not reenact our last endeavor, hmm?"_

Blue sputtered a laugh, Red stiffened and Yellow busted out in giggles all in matter of seconds, their commander's words turning the still Lions into writhing messes in their particular hangers. Voltron's left leg collapsed onto the ground, its right arm taking a defensive position as she scrambled to a standing position, slung her tail around and spoke questions that were either rhetorical, or no one could answer them at the speed that she was delivering, though Blue could pick up 'idiotic' and 'I never told him to do _that'_ used several times. Yellow, still cackling, fell to the ground, burying his snout in between his massive paws.

Blue barely caught the hints of Green's whispering to Black over Yellow and Red's chatter. _"I'm guessing that'll do."_

 _"I'm guessing,"_ He responded, before the Celtic Blue female sensed him straighten himself and stand to his full height. Seriousness arched across from the multi-colored Lion, the group quieting down as he addressed them in his more leader-like tone. " _It seems our Paladins are upon us."_

Turning her head to the minuscule opening at the beginning of her bay, Blue straightened her shoulders as she awaited the tiny organic's arrival. Sets of quiet footsteps were just barley audible between Red and Yellow's fading noise, but the metal feline could feel the presence of her Paladin through the entryway, the young male teeming with excitement and anxiousness. Sure enough, the passage slid open ticks later, her partner striding into the room with an achingly familiar set of armor that fit him almost too well.

"Heya, Baby Blue!" He waved, holding his Paladin helmet on his hip and his Bayard storing itself in the suit. Blue purred softly at the boy, leaning her head down to get a better look at him in her previous partner's dress ware. He spun around, catching the notion as he grinned at the elder being. "How do I look?"

 _"Rather heroic, if I do say so myself."_ She pressed her nose against his lanky figure as gently as she could, but the human gripped onto the scuffled metal as to not tumble over. Lance chuckled as he grasped onto her snout, switching his head back and forth to glance in both of your eyes as she said a bit softer, " _Just like he did."_

The lanky human patted her snout, offering comfort from his side of the pair's link. "Ready to go?"

Blue near snorted, shifting backward and opening her mouth as to let the pilot in as she thought, _'Only if I get to see how this match-making event turns out.'_

* * *

 The five Lions settled themselves before the capital building, resting on their haunches against the raised platform as their dressed-up flesh counterparts trailed out of their cockpits and toward their diplomatic destination. Allura and Coran travelled beside Shiro from where they exited Black, the Paladins arranging themselves next to them as the crowd below screeched, emanating flashes of light hinting toward captured images and videos of the heroic twelve. Maor, along with two guards in shining silver armor, greeted the team, her feline-like eyes flickering up to the mechanical beats with a glint in her pupils. The five stood tall and unafraid; the monarch could feel the hum of their AIs through the evening air. 

She knew they were powerful, she didn't know that they were _alive_.

Not that the scrawlings on the sides of their most historic buildings and the royal family's home and the muddied stories that ancient Hoilians passed down about the legendary defender had perfect clarity, or anything. No, instead the stories of the Five Robotic Lions and their partners were instead told as if they were a sacred spirit that roamed their world, the tale of Hoiylien's savior told yet not questioned, even as the details got erased.

Perhaps that was why it was so easy to strike a deal with the Galra.

Maor, when younger and foolish, had fully agreed with a squad of invaders to allow access to the planet on certain terms and conditions. Thus, over half of her people were scattered among Galra occupied worlds as to provide either medical, scientific, or enforcement support, and their home world was constantly monitored and used for training procedures. The treaty she had assembled was now on its last legs, as certain citizens had reported sightings of the invaders on certain days they were not permitted to be on the planet, and the fact that Maor was forced to submit a complete entry of the entire world's activity nightly. Few knew about this secret ruling, and only a manic handful of conspiracy theorists even dared to think about the Galra's touch on their home; it was entirely taboo.

And now, with a Galran ship having caught sight of the Castle of Lions the day prior before she'd even gotten the chance to meet the five Lions of Voltron, she had to hand over the twelve whilst she celebrated their arrival.

Yet, as soon as Maor met them, she discovered that these were no ordinary pilots directing ordinary ships; no, the way these 'hu-mans' acted around each other, and the way the sentience of the Lions hummed before her hinted that they were worthy of the worn legends her people passed down.

Perhaps she could have the Paladins fight for her planet, though she had betrayed them in its name.

"Mighty Paladins of Voltron and the last of the noble Alteans," She bowed her head, clasping her hands together. The warrior now adorned in a sparkling yellow dress with her blade still at her hip, her crown keeping the green and purple strands that escaped her massive braids at bay. As she aligned her spine once more, "Welcome to our feast in honor of your arrival."

Allura repeated the gesture, her grin polite but excited. Multi-colored eyes sparkling, she quickly responded, "The honor is ours', Queen Maor. Thank you once more for allowing us to rest on your beautiful planet."

The woman took a step behind them, extending her hand toward the building as she gave a last glance toward the Lions, and then meeting the grey eyes of the lead human. He tilted his chin up, as if he was attempting to mirror her confident appearance and cloud his inner emotions, yet, the Hoilian guessed that their race difference accounted for her seeing right through him. The man reeked of half-way hidden emotion, as if the relationship between him and another of his team was off or out of terms. She lifted her head a tad bit higher, and her eyes narrowed.

Was that _love?_ The Paladins of Voltron were swarmed with it, but this one and-

_'Ah. The green one.'_

The Queen's smiled faltered for but a tick, expression flashing with a painful grimace. ' _That's going to make this so much harder.'_

"Come, let the festivities begin!" She turned on her heel as she regained her upbeat composure, the small thudding behind her hinting that the galactic heroes were following her movements. Two guards ahead of her threw the doors open, presenting the transformed structure to the newcomers.

* * *

 Black squirmed from his standing position, broad red and white wings twitching as his tail flashed around his hindquarters. Yellow optics barring into the figures on the other side of the glass, the lead Lion watched as the monarch of the planet lead their organic team members away and into the hands of delegates and nobelmen. Her previous look that had been directed to him not a handful of ticks ago had pinned something in his AI subconscious that hadn't settled well with him, instincts telling him to grab the team and wormhole away from the planet as fast as possible. He released a low rumble as he reached out to the other four mechanical beasts that surrounded him.

 _"Red, Yellow, Blue, keep an eye out for anyone that might exit or enter this establishment while Green and myself are departed. Run secondary scans in this sector and send reports into the Castle's log for archiving. There's something about the queen that does not seem quite right."_ He commanded, the other quartet of felines sensing alert echoing off of him in rippling waves. They swung their heads to glance in his optics, yet the head of Voltron made not a movement.

 _"What's wrong with her?"_ Yellow inquired, massive teeth clicking against his jaws as his tail lashed out.

**_"Galra."_ **

If there was one thing the primary-colored Lions knew about their leader, it was that he could detected the presence of the invading species in only a handful of ticks. The scars of the race that Zarkon's betrayal left upon him, upon _all of them_ , ran deep in his AI, his contact with the Galra tracing back to the five's very creation. The universe's dictator had even stationed the feline machine at his home planet when a planet or distant galaxy wasn't in need of saving, like a prized trophy for all of the common folk to stare at. And thus Black had gotten a first hand look at the mass population of the planet, from the mischievous merchants to the minuscule cubs to the mighty warriors, who would all marvel at him from their places below. He learned their mannerisms', their language, their traditions- all from watching them grow through that _'Age of Exploration'_ , as they had dubbed it.

They were good people, interested in serving their empire with a fierce and loving loyalty. The Galra were explorers, colonists and conquers who were fair to their people and protective of their allies.

 _Were_ , being the main word.

And now?

The empire had left a deep, bloody mark on the infinite, ever expanding realm of reality that would take endless sacrifice to stitch back up, himself and the others being the needle and the planets that joined them and the Blade of Marmora being the thread. The universe was burning because of them. _Because of him_.

So the others had learned- from experience, both the devastating blow and the luck of it- when their commander had suspected the influence of the Galra, _it was probably Galra._

They instantly stiffened as soon as the word entered their minds, anxiety and anger teeming among them as soon as it registered. Red and Blue emitted low, rumbling growls with their jaws opening to reveal their massive teeth, Green hunkering down and Yellow aligning his back to stand a bit straighter, the limbs of the Legendary Defender ready to spring to action at a moment's notice. Their leader moved not an inch, though, as if he was expecting them to jump (Which, of course, he was).

 _"We don't have to do this right now,"_ Green offered, almost kneading her massive paws against the platform they rested on. _"It's not that important-"_

 _"It's important for our Paladins, Green."_ He interrupted, his gaze never moving from the multiple, tiny forms just inside the structure before the pieces of Voltron. _"Yet, we will stay in a close enough proximity to fight any oncoming attackers and form Voltron if necessary. Agreed?"_

 _"Agreed,"_ She finally responded, the four resuming their previous positions and barring their eyes into the see-through material and onto the backs of their partners.

* * *

 Basking in the tinted lights that danced overhead, Pidge folded her hands under her chin while she listened to a scientist chatter excitedly away, absorbing every scrap of information that she could receive. She, the organic components of Voltron, and the highest ranking Hoilians all sat around a large, circular table made up of a mix of mahogany wood and glowing alien metal, their holochairs pulled up tight to the surface with their near-empty plates and glasses spread about as if they were all eating off of each other's plate. Someone in the distance, behind the other, smaller tables and clumps of cat-eyed natives, played a light, string-like song that made the urge to tap her boot against the floor beneath it, and the girl couldn't help but wonder how it would feel to dance along to the melody.

"... and with the extra propulsion thanks to our elemental abilities, we're able to..."

As the music and science bled together in a symphony of artistry in her head, she took another sip of the velvet, bubbling liquid in her glass and gave a soft hum to herself as she absorbed more of her atmosphere. Next to the Green Paladin sat Shiro, and at her other Hunk, Allura beside to him with Coran standing behind her and Lance and Keith on the other side of the Kerberos pilot, Maor and her ring of planetary assistants beside the Altean Princess. The royalties were interlocked in a negotiation that no one dared to interrupt after Shiro was shifted out of it, the amount of focus shining through the Altean's smile and comfortable posture that the Paladins knew better not to intervene in fear of loosing limbs in the next training simulation. Lance and Hunk were chatting with an advisor, the three's faces cheery and they commenced. Shiro and Keith muttered between themselves and a scientist, the two Earthlings looking mildly interested after someone managed to sputter something that sparked a new conversation. With all of Team Voltron occupied, Pidge allowed herself to sink into a conversation on her own, eyes bright in the ever-so-colored lighting.

"So what happens with the additional drag even after.."

It had been little over an hour when she found that a pair of eyes were locked upon her, the feeling of being watched hanging over the Green Paladin. Tipping her glass back and sipping on its contents, she fluttered her golden gaze around her surroundings while the biomechanic conversation started to fade into the other chatter. She threw her golden gaze around the table, checking off the members one by one. _'Not Lance, Not Hunk, not Keith, or Allura, or-'_

She tried her best not to choke, instead coughing into the back of her hand and waving her other at the concerned scientist to ensure she was alright.

 _'Because who else would it be than golden boy, and my forever crush, Takashi freaking Shirogane?'_ She felt her face grow warm for the second time that day, and she chewed her tongue to keep herself from uttering something stupid. Blinking rapidly once more, she smiled and made a gesture for the Hoilian to continue but threw her eyes in his direction, shoving the mass of her attention to the Black Paladin.

He sat with his hands intertwined, one leg crossed over the other and with his head both turned and tilted to her side, his stark eyes tossing back and forth from the pair of monarchs with their negotiations, Keith's conversation, and her. Shiro's expression was calm, his eyebrows raised and mouth near quirked upward in a calm smile, as if he was almost at the point of relaxation admit his usual stress, _finally_. Gape soft and warm to the small woman, she watched him reach for his glass with his metallic hand and swirl it around, tipping it back with slow and comfortable movements. Pidge felt her heart threaten to drown out the rest of the universe, the organ beating against her chest and in her ears as it threated to melt at the mere sight of her solemn leader at such serenity.

That is, until he set the glass down at met her gaze again.

**_'Shit.'_ **

* * *

Shiro stiffened, glass almost glued to his metal as he held her line of sight and the link imploded to life between them. The ex-prisoner slammed the cup down as she paralleled the action, the two's heads still stuck in their places as his heat threatened to beat out of his throat. Faces colored varying shades of pink and red under both make-up, freckles, and scars, the pair of Paladins broke eye contact for only seconds as she batted her eyes at the man whilst trying to not look like deer in the headlights. As her gaze returned to normal and she tossed it back over her shoulder to whomever she was talking with, but the way she kept her frame turned toward him and made no attempt to close off their mental connection.

He watched as her neutral expression mutated to that of a smirk, one eyebrow raised as she turned back to whoever she was talking with.

 _'What'cha looking at?'_ blurrily came through the link, nearly scaring him out of his skin. he swallowed, deciding to turn his head back to Keith and the alien chatted hurriedly about a topic he hadn't kept track on since he became... _distracted._

 _'Sorry, zoned out,_ ' He lied, folding his hands together under his chin. _'Having fun with your scientific chat,'_ He directed the topic elsewhere, hoping she wouldn't comment further on his wandering gaze. A beat of silence passed until the idea of her answer clarified itself into words, agreeing with the turn of conversation:

 _'I looked away and now I'm lost,_ ' She admitted, using a spork-like utensil to pick at her food. _'But I don't mind much. It doesn't help that half of these people seem to talk like they're raping Guns and Ships, either. Do you remember that song?'_

Shiro nodded as he rubbed his mechanical wrist, grinning as he flashed back to Matt screaming the lyrics to the Broadway hit to demonstrate _'Shiro, Katie can rap this like seven times as fast, just like this'_ and make an utter fool out of himself, providing amusement for both of the other spacecraft passengers. He could still remember the many times the Commander slapped his hand over Matt's mouth while still scribbling some sort of reading down, just so he and their pilot didn't have to listen to the sounds akin to that of a tortured owl.  _'Matt used to sing that in the shuttle all the time. Though, he would mostly run his words together and sound.. let's say-'_

Amusement and understanding tickled down his spine as she threw her eyes in his direction. _'You should've heard him actually sing, though. He could jam out with a ladle or hairbrush and not sound like a dying cat-if he actually tried. Not that he did that much.'_

Pidge dropped her hands to her lap and offered whoever she was talking to a fierce nod, prompting them to continue as she chased honey hair back behind her ears and away from her warm eyes. she crossed her legs and rested her chin in her palm, tilting more in his direction. Pidge huffed suddenly, tapping her fingers against her cheek. _'I guess _after you were kicked out of the negotiations, Keith and the Hoilian's conversation got boring?'__

He exhaled a short laugh, head drooping for only a second before it dipped back. _'When they started talking about weapons, I didn't know whether to run or change to subject. Other than that, I'm in the same boat you are.'_

She brought her hand up to her mouth, smiling into the back of it. _'Keith and his knives. Always a scary thing.'_

_'You're not much better, what with your tech.'_

* * *

The Queen froze mid-sentence, focusing her feline eyes across the table and to the pair of Paladins that reeked of adoration. She had caught them smiling off-handedly at each other for the past handful of doboshes, expressions soft and caring while the rest of the planet seemed to be nonexistent to the two. She tried her best not to grumble; they would only make this more complicated, in the long run. She cursed her situation once more, but the oddity of the pair's behavior struck her curiosity. Pursing her lips, she turned back to the Altean Princess and cleared her throat, pressing her fingers against her palm and gesturing to the two with her other hand.

"You are close to the Paladins, correct?" Maor chased her braids over her shoulder.

The lilac-haired woman bowed her head, earrings dangling to and fro while she followed Maor's line of sight. As her head rose, she responded, "I am; we've been through a lot together. What of it?"

She turned her head toward Allura, taking note of the careful tone the woman in silver had used and the way her advisor and shifted his line sight onto her. _'Just how close are these beings?'_ Maor answered with her own inquiry, "IS there something wrong with both the Black and Green Paladins?"

Allura folded her hands in her lap and leaned backward in the cushioned seat, the diplomatic smile ever present. Her blue/pink eyes were slightly narrowed, though, her head tilted to the side as she attempted to decipher the Hoilian's question. "I, I do not understand. They are both well, if that is what you are asking."

"Not quite." The monarch in yellow crossed one leg over the other as she continued. "They are acting rather strange, and the way they look at each other is unlike anything I've ever seen. I would assume that they are mates, but I've yet to see a pair of mates behave so, _ahem_ , _awkwardly_ around each other. They did not appear this strange when I had previously met the Paladins, either. I mean no gossip," She added, tone still holding the semi-artificial wonder it had possessed before. These beings were rather interesting, after all. Was this just how these Humans interacted, or was it the Paladin way?

Maor watched the Altean's cheeks grew pink, her grin widening as here eyes danced around the room. "Oh. _Oh_! Um, I'm afraid you are mistaken. You see, both Shiro and Pidge- well, that is their names, if you must know- they aren't mates, per say, just-"

The Princess paused from her stuttering, exhaling sharply and turning to Maor with a determined glint in her eyes. She answered in a firm voice, as if to assure both the Hoilian and herself of something. "Actually, yes. They _are_ mates, and their behavior is entirely natural for, um, _Humans_. Bit odd, is it not?"

The queen almost started to question the authenticity of the statement, but she instead navigated her view back toward the two, who now had fully turned toward each other and now talked, a pink glaze smothered upon the two's faces as they quietly chatted as if her planet had dissolved into nothingness beyond them. Maor found it hard not to smile at the two; it was completely unexpected that anyone with such a heavy title as a 'Defender of the Universe' could find time for love, at least to her.

She mentally cursed; Was she trying to kill herself with self inflicted wounds?

"Indeed," She agreed, nodding and swinging back to Allura. "Now, where were we?"

* * *

As soon as the lights started to dim and the musician soon became accompanied by a group of harmonizers, Allura recognized the calling of a dance. She watched as a considerable amount of Hoilians simply stood and moved their tables with their strange abilities, grabbing each other at the waists and hands and starting to spin and twirl them in a exciting manner. The instruments, now producing light, airy music, were pinched and plucked at a rapid pace, the dancers following the tempo and they spun and weaved in circles and lines in a pattern that she could not help but stare at. Her heart ached inside of her chest; she could almost see her mother and father spinning across the Castle's courtroom among numerous other Alteans, all with smiles stretched wide and markings bent from doing so.

The queen, voice as excited and interested as ever, strayed once more from the almost finished discussion about Voltron's stay and spoke softly to Allura. "Have you not danced before?"

She nodded shortly, glancing back at Coran. The older man's eyes were glazed over, as if he were seeing and feeling the same thing she did. The Princess turned her chair, now in Maor's direction, and snuck her hand around his, a childhood habit she had yet to grow out of. "On our world, on Altea, we would hold ceremonial banquets and feasts, akin to this one. It is nostalgic to see a sight such as this."

She nodded. "I can only imagine."

"Though," Allura dropped her hand and lightened her tone of voice, "It's exciting to see. I've not been in a dance for over ten thousand years, and I doubt the Paladins have ever attended one such as this. Perhaps they will enjoy it."

A moment of silence passed before the espresso-skinned Hoilian rose from where she sat, motioning for all to rise. Her people made the action with haste, the humans and Altean following uncertainly seconds later. With an odd sense of unison, they shifted the table away with only a few short, quick movements, the wood (or was it metal?) split seamlessly and stored out of view. The woman in yellow held her hand out to the princess, to which she slowly accepted.

"Perhaps they will follow in your footsteps," Voice laced with mirth, Maor led Allura to the center of the dancers, pulling one pair of hands in the air while the others were exchanged for a hip and a shoulder. They steadily swayed and shifted along, Allura counting the steps in her head until she memorized them. Silver and yellow flashed about as the pair side-stepped between others and weaved back together, purple and green hair flying around until the Hoilian caught the Altean in her older arms and dipped her; the pair were grinning when she bobbed back up, Allura's mind near high from nostalgia.

"Any fun?"

Allura nodded as she was traded off to her next partner. "Much."

* * *

“Dad taught me how to dance.”

Pidge didn’t quite know why it slipped out of her mouth as quick as anything could, a rosy blush smothering her cheeks as she then pressed her mouth into a pink, gold tinted line. She watched as her commander smiled his award-wining grin out of her peripheral, the youngest Holt stiffed her shoulders as embarrassment flooded through their Paladin link. Shiro reached out from his side of it, interest confronting awkwardness in a blurry combination as she tried her best not to slam her head onto the wall- the thought, at his point, was very tempting.

“Really?” Shiro inquired, the scar across his nose stretching up as he grinned at the golden genius, eyes shimmering I the Voltron-themed lighting. Everything in her brain simultaneously made the executive decision to look away before she started gaping at him.

“Yeah,” She smoothed down her olive armored dress, freckles now scarlet. “He would spin me around the kitchen and teach me all the steps. It paid off at all of those Garrison Galas we had to attend.” She scoffed. "He would let me stand on his feet and make me count all of the steps."

A beat of silence passed between them, her shoulders slowly lowering themselves as the awkwardness eased away in their mental bond as memories of her father circled around her mind, or their collective headspace, as it was becoming.The pair watched as the aliens before them tossed and turned in a graceful set of movements, the humans unsure if they possessed their stamina in their complex twists. The beings clapped and laughed, throwing their arms about as they traded each other off for a new dancer. She hummed along to the music under her breath as the music reached a bridge, the lyrics to the song fuzzy as the Castle's translator struggled to keep up with the singer. She near jumped when Shiro cleared his throat, spinning around with her honey-brown bangs falling across her nose.

“He taught me, too.” He shuffled awkwardly in Zarkon’s suit, almost hiding in the cape that clung to his form. “Matt kept on giggling while Commander Holt told me _‘you’re not cradling eggs, here, son,’_ or _'Shiro, not tripping over your own feet is lesson one.'_ "

Pidge chuckled, watching as his gunmetal eyes finally reached her own set of hazel. His cheeks were flushed, and it looked as if the Black Paladin was a tad bit younger from the stress that was missing from his features. For a few heartbeats, their gaze was kept to the other, until her commander looked away and his a hand behind his back, holding the other out to her. Embarrassment instantly surged into the back of her consciousness- yet, surprisingly, it wasn't her's.

"Do you wanna see which of us he taught better?”

She shoulders went up to her ears and she blinked rapidly, lips parting as hazel orbs widened.

_'This is quiznacking real. Finding an awesome dress, Allura being literally magical with everything, him wearing a suit, him asking me to dance? Actually real. I cannot freaking believe this.'_

She realized after half of a tick that her shocked movement wasn't the most mannerful, nor the most kind. She lowered her shoulders and replaced her expression with a signature smirk, one that she could easily hide behind in the stead of her brother's glasses. Though she tried her bet to mask her moonstruck appearance, it came across to a raised brow and soft smile as she reached to hold onto his metallic hand.

"I'll go easy on you."

He breathed softly, almost a sigh of relief in her opinion. She allowed him to guide them to the corner of the mass where the Hoilians entered the massive ring of movement. With a nervous glance to Shiro which he returned, they dove into the group, their hands pressed together. They skipped in sync as they entered, the traditional placement  of hands clicking together quickly. The pair spun, jumping from one foot to another to turn as the segmented action provided for little hops as they hand circles. Her leader's metallic hand was cool upon her waist, his figure comforting close to her as they glided to and fro, bobbing and weaving in figure eight patterns. They separated hands and clapped, spinning once, twice, and then merged back together and intertwined their hands as they tapped their feet along to the best with every other step.

"Ready to back down?" He asked, smirk easy as they moved. With the closeness of their minds and their figures', Pidge had to stomp out her embarrassment and exchange it for sass. Their joined arms rose, twirling around the girl's form as if he was hugging he from behind.

Pidge made a face, eyes narrowed and smile drawn. "Only when you are."

* * *

 He was dead.

It was the only possible explanation.

Why?

Because only after death hallucinations or afterworld dreams could procure him dancing with the most intelligent, beautiful woman he had ever known. Only heaven could allow the thought of her from being tucked into his arms, twisting and turning and laughing, flashing about him as though he was stuck to the ground and she encircled him. Maybe he was dreaming, he thought, as she slid behind him and stepped into the center of the floor, mirroring those who were beside them, the layers of green lace spinning about as she kept her hands in the air, golden eyes fluttering shut as a toothy grin stretched wide.

 _'The dress must've murdered me,'_ Shiro thought as soon as he threw his mechanical hand for her to take into her own. She accepted it, yanking him along with her and chuckling softly as the two bowed and steadily shifted into the next song; a little slower, so the hands were adjusted a tad bit tighter. Shiro's cape spilled over his arms and onto Pidge's side, green skirt overtaking one of his feet. After a shuddering breath they took in unison, Shiro counted silently until they took their dive.

Olive and violet pooled around the humans like auras, filling the area with bright and vibrant hues of material flashing and moving about. Now, the dance much slower, the pair swung each other in delicate arcs with diverted gazes; their proximity kept Shiro literally on his toes, her head just inches from resting on his shoulder. Her figure was warm next to his, and the nineteen year old tried his best not to melt against it.

"Have I won yet?" She whispered. The lights were getting heavier, darker, so the designs that seemed to be carved into near every living thing glowed against the walls, amidst the people, and the floor, hummed green and gold and purple and red, bathed every color he could set his mind to. Slow and gentle, they dropped hands and she threw hers out to the side, his own resting on her waist. He counted the steps, then tilting her to his chest and to the side.

"I don't quite think I've given up yet, Katie." The name felt appropriate, though uttering it, the Black Paladin felt electricity fumble at the back of their shared minds. Her brunette curls grazed his cheek as she looked over her shoulder. With the smallest glance around them, he caught glimpses of his other Paladins scatted around him, Keith and Lance paralleling their stance a few rows away, Allura beside them and Hunk further over than her. Keith managed to meet his eyes and he stubbornly refused to look at Lances', offering a shrug of the shoulders.

_'Great, so we're both messes.'_

The look she gifted unto him was mischievous; he near had a recollection of the same expression Allura had shot at him earlier. "Well, _Takashi_ , I think you might change your mind in just a minute."

 _'FRicK.'_ He exhaled sharply, pressing back the choke that had nearly formed and letting the heat he had struggled so hard against overtake his expression, even his ears boiling hot. _'That's a first name. She's hardly used my first name, but she just used it. She just said "Takashi". I am dead, aren't I?'_ His only response was the smallest of "oh's" and a faux roll of the eyes to hide his inner dorky reaction.

 _'Not quite._ ' A voice slipped into his head, interrupting the peaceful mindscape the two created and filling it with a deep, near baritone voice on his end and probably a massive, authoritative presence in hers. His Lion startled him out of his moonstruck daze and Pidge out of her competitive spirit, her face turning to his with an curious expression, though he could feel a tad bit of disappointment through the bond.

"Is that Black?" She asked.

 _'Indeed. I'm afraid I require the two of you assistance-wise - Pidge for her technical skills, and she will need an escort.'_ His tone was final, and Shiro knew there would not be a question asked about if they should comply. Though, he couldn't help but wonder for what purpose the Lion had needed technical support, or why Pidge needed an ' _escort_ '. He turned to the Paladin in his arms; her eyes were bright as she smiled at him over her shoulder, bubbling with excitement. She clearly understood the message that was fuzzy on her side.

"After this song, we're gonna go check the Lions," Her voice beamed. "Or I'll drag your ass out there myself."

He couldn't help but chuckle as he unraveled their arms and slid the two to the side, pressing her back against his chest. " _Language_."

" _English_."

* * *

Green had already lowered her form and opened her both by the time the two finally trailed out of the building, the pair of Paladins laughing at something unbeknown to her. The  Pidge led the way, Shiro walking slowly behind her as the Lion lowered the steps into her jaw and the humans entered inside, chattering away as their humans did so much. She clamped her jaw shut and readjusted herself, listening in on them as the entered the cockpit.

"... then, all I have to do is fix that and we can go back."

Black's Paladin nodded, and the machine could practically feel the high the two were on, dancing about and talking without uttering a word, seeing each other in marvelous dressage; she decided then that these two were disgustingly in love, and if they did not succeed in this plan, she would trap them inside her cabin until they admitted their feelings. The smallest Lion then pondered what lengths she was willing to go for this idea.

Pidge placed a hand against the dash, settling comfortably in the pilot's seat and splaying her hands over the dashboard. "So what's up, Green?"

The beat purred, straightening her posture to that of a standing position, tail low behind her. _'Nothing,'_ she answered innocently.

The speckled organic blinked, tossing her golden eyes over to Shiro before back to the dash. Both were now bathed in the evening glow of the planet's skies and the artificial lights lime lights that glittered from the cabin, the rest of the area awash in shadows. Yet, the glow that would otherwise make one look a sickly hue, her bird absorbed the color as if it was a second skin and looked ever bright. "Wait, what? But Black contacted us-"

_'He did.'_

With that, the Green and Black Lion turned from where they stood, motions in unison as if rehearsed, and _quiznacking left_ the Feast; they leapt off of the platform and their blasters flashed on, allowing them to soar off. Pidge scrambled to stop the movement, attempting to pull on the controls and tap on the dashboard, but her efforts were fruitless, Green piloting herself quite fine. Shiro clung to the back of the seat, mentally demanding an explanation but receiving none from either machine.

"Green, where are you taking us?" She demanded, but her only answer was a grumble and a mental assurance they'd be fine. Pidge then attempted to click on the screen to override her Lion's systems, but it shut her out and restricted her to her visuals.

She sighed. " _Greaaaaaat_." Her bird turned back to Shiro, who leaned out the seat and almost over her.

"Do we have any way of contacting the others?" He inquired, running his Galra-manufactured hand through his white clump of hair. She tapped on her gauntlet and her face lit up; Green quickly scrambled to disengage it, sending a wave of electricity low enough to only shut down the pair and any other low-functioning electronic. She did her best to hold a laugh in as Pidge sputtered, gesturing wildly until she gave up and groaned.

"Not anymore."

The bigger Paladin nodded, quite for but a moment until he hummed and fell more heavily against the seat, placing his hand on the edge of the cushion. "I guess we just wait until we get to where ever their taking us."

"I wonder where that is." She pondered, turning her eyes up to meet his. He shrugged, settling on the ground next to her, shoveling the cape away from his limbs and toward his back, the Altean material sliding silently against Zarkon's armor. For a handful of minuets, their steady breathing was the only thing besides the hum of Green's systems to fill the compacted area, the mood a repeat of before: quiet and a tad awkward, awash in artificial light and accompanied by the smallest involuntary sighs.

This time, though, it was interrupted by neither organics, instead the massive Lions' landing on whatever distant corner of the world they had swished the Paladins away to. The pair of mechanical felines settled down before an overhang, a vast field stretching underneath them. Pidge, who's head had been toward her own boots and tucked under her bangs, dipped it upward and dropped her jaw in an instant. She flung her hand out to the side, clenching it as she blindly as she reached for her comrade and kept her face glued still. If Green had a humanoid face, she would've beamed at the way her Paladin's face had lit up, golden eyes warm as the sun that was currently setting before the four.

 _"Shiro_ ," She didn't cringe as she tugged on his hair, though he certainly did, face shriveling up. The female hardly blinked as she absorbed what Green's screen had to show, silently thanking Green in her subconscious. "Shiro, look at this."

He grabbed her hand, shuffling up to see whatever she was gawking at. " _Let go, Pidge_ -what is it?"

His breath was stolen away from him, his shoulders slumping and he settled back onto the floor of the cabin, her hand dropping from his forelock. The sky, slathered in a watercolor of violet and crimson, was freckled with silver and gold when it wasn't obscene with smoked clouds or the collection of butter yellow moons. In the shadowed honey brown field below, minuscule lights began to dance and flutter about, presumably tiny lightning bugs just awakening for the night cycle. The Hoilian's sun was sinking behind an indigo collection of stubby mountains, casting shadows above the valley that they stood above. A luminescent lake was just below the overhang where their Lions sat, presumably the same healing liquid that they had previously heard of the day prior, glowing a intoxicatingly mysterious teal.

"Like a scene from a movie," Pidge concluded, awe dissolving into curiosity from what her partner could tell. In a singular swift movement, she snatched up Shiro's human hand and stood up before dragging both of them out. "Let's go take a look at it!"

* * *

As she escaped her Lion's jaw, he couldn't find it in himself to suggest they stay behind. They wordlessly limbered toward the edge of the cliff, boots clicking against sunset tinted grass as Shiro just hardly kept on her heels; the way her eyes had glowed had distracted him enough, not to mention the way she flushed when he grinned at her. Pidge had let his hand go as soon as they cleared both of the Lions, her speed increasing as they received a larger grasp of their surroundings. He had to wrap his arms around her midsection to keep her from scrambling off the edge, swinging her around while repeating 'nope' in a high-pitch voice.

"Relax," She giggled, attempting to wiggle out of his much larger arms. "My bayard is right here."

"I thought you were gonna jump off a cliff," He retorted, allowing her to tap her fingers against the back of her dress, green weapon forming his her fist. It's glow splayed around the two, almost brighter than the distant star in the horizon. He let his arms go, mouth pressed into a thin line and eyes narrowed as he awaited her next move.

"Okay, so I'll-" She shot it off, the grapple lodging it into the midst of the cliff with a reassuring 'snick'. "And now we jump. Simple enough, right?"

The ex-prisoner threw his metallic arm out, gesturing out to the drop off with a silent sigh of exasperation. "You just said 'we jump'. Your plan is way too simple, Pidge, and I'm still a bit concerned that you want us to jump off a cliff."

The brunette gave a roll of her eyes, grabbing his arm and yanking it around her, then waddling the pair upon the edge where they leaned over to look at the steep drop. "We jump and slide on this edge, and then the bayard will keep us from our eminent death." She tugged on the grapple to demonstrate, grin wide as she fixed her gaze back on the water. "Simple. Besides, I wanna get a sample of that water."

Shiro, stamping out the heat on his face from the contact and trying not to laugh at the irony of his situation, shook his head and tightened his grip. "Yes, because I totally don't see a problem with that."

"Anyway, one.."

"Tw-"

A blunt, metallic object shifted onto the back of his head, the all too familiar sound of a blaster warming up entering both of their ears. Both of their forms now still and cold, Shiro dared to tilt his head to the side to grasp a view of their undiscovered attacker, hand instinctively heating up in front of Pidge's form while her bayard zipped to the handle. His other hand loosening around the smaller's face and her head toward him, the Black Paladin met eyes with the attacker: the warrior they had met the day prior, Kola.

Azure eyes narrowed with pupils now only slits, his mouth pulled back to reveal various sets of jagged, flesh-piercing teeth. _"Don' move."_


	5. (Not) According to Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If you asked Shiro, jumping off a cliff seemed pretty reasonable now.
> 
> In which Pidge breaks someone's ribs', Klance is confirmed to be adorable, and the Hoilians screw over their queen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It totally hasn't been five months since I updated. Nope. The Shidge Valentines Exchange and school and a state student convention and procrastination hasn't gotten in my way. I totally love this chapter and don't think its rushed.  
> Nope.

What happened next could only be processed in the adrenaline-infused mind of a battle-hardened soldier, which all three in the situation happened to be and have. Extraterrestrial firearm ever present against his buzz-cut scalp, Shiro's gaze flashed to the younger female in his grip; she nodded, agreeing to the unspoken battle formation that was awaiting to be performed. The brunette clinging to the bayard in her palms and preparing to follow whatever lead he would throw out, she swallowed and readjusted her footing. Bracing himself for whatever would happen next, he breathed a sigh and uncurled his arms from her slender waist, raising them in the universal submission sign.

Jumping off a cliff seemed pretty reasonable now.

"Did you really think you could come to our 'ome and expec' no trouble?" The native spat, claws clicking against the handle of his weapon. "You carry trouble with you, 'o matter where you go!"

Shiro could hear Pidge's frown in her words. "Voltron is literally dubbed the Defender of the Universe, are you insane?"

"You drag the Galra behind you, 'herever you go. Her Ma'esty knows this, that you 'ave brought them 'ere as well! 'Hat is why she sent me 'o take care of you."

Shiro inhaled unevenly; although he could see Kola's point, he also had some sort of blaster shoved against his head and apparent Galra near the planet, and he decided that both had to go before any sort of chit-chat took place.

The metallic elbow jolted back smack dab into the center of Kola's chest plate, glowing fist thrusting up into his chin, echoing a unexpected crack. Their attacker stumbled back, winded as he clutched his chest and began to trip back upon his heels. Shiro's form shifted backwards as the Green Paladin forced him out of the way via a hand across his chest and onto his shoulder, glittering grapple firing and surrounding the Hoilian's lithe frame like some sort of electronic vine. His lavender hand snatched the line and yanked back, Kola incapacitated as he fell to the ground with a yelp and a thrashing wiggle.

Pidge sighed behind him, hand dragging down from his shoulder and latching itself upon the edge of the cape. "That-that was-"

"Unexpected," He completed, tugging on the Bayard's line to test its durability. "To say the lea-"

Both Shiro and Pidge had lost the native people's power in their cluttered memories, as when a shoot of fire crackled its way toward them, they were completely unprepared. They dove out of the way on instinct, crashing onto the earthen underfoot as the flame dissolved into thin air. Kola managed to leap upward and stand, pupils thinned into raven slits against light irises that dug into the back of their heads. He charged forward at the two, the Green Bayard still clinging around his upper body and constricting his movements, though he was still quick as any Galra the humans had seen. With a growl, electric blue fire encircled him and shot at both, the Paladins skittering awkwardly to avoid it.

Shiro managed to throw his head back to his Lion which toward above them, eyes wide. "Is this what you wanted to show us?"

Pidge planted her feet, upturning topsoil and readjusting her grip on the Bayard. She whisked her head over, scrunching her golden, tired eyes and focusing on her commander. _'C'mon, stupid, inconveniencing Paladin Bond, don't get us killed!'_

Doing her best to cram her idea into his head, the golden-haired genius held her ground, wrangling the grapple back into its canister, which did not sit well with the Hoilian. She flung herself away from another blast that would've otherwise achieved her head, grunting as she collided with the earth once more. Reeling in more an more of the snake-like weapon, she watched as Kola tried his best to pull away from the burning bayard, head tossing with light blue dreadlocks and spouts of flame. Her ever heroic leaded ducked and weaved between each burst, dispersing them with a wave of his artificial fist in an attempt to get closer to the enemy. A confident grin drew itself upon her features. _'Yes, he understood, we'll win any second now!'_

That was _not_ the case.

A hunk of rock tore for the side off the cliff and slammed into Shiro's stomach, throwing him across the overhang and tumbling in circles until he rested against his Lion's massive paw. Pidge growled with widened honey eyes, sprinting around and tightening her grip so the bayard burned with more intensity. Ripping a plot from an old movie she had loved even then, the Green Paladin leapt and dodged everything that was shot at her until he was less than a foot away from her.

With one swift, well-placed kick to the back of the knees and a dodge from another elemental blast, Kola landed on the upturned dirt with Pidge's foot pressed against the side of his head. He made an attempt to open his mouth, but instead only groaned from the fiery, sharp burning of the Paladin weapon, clamping his eyes shut. Pidge took a heavy breath, eyes darting to Shiro, who was struggling up with a hand still clutched to the point of contact on his torso.

"We have to warn the others."

* * *

 Hunk was starting to get creeped out.

He had seen the team's leader and its techie sneak out of the complex with wide grins, flushed complexions and their Lions blast off without a word of warning, the terrifying warrior they had met the day prior following out minuets later, and now, he swore that Queen Maor was staring at the off-worlders from her spot on the throne. His sixth-sense sort of feeling was tugging at him, saying _'Hey something's wrong you need to fix it!'_ for reasons that escaped him.

Tossing his gaze between the swirling cat-eyed natives, he swallowed the strange watermelon-apple tasting drink, the Paladin absorbing all of the suspicious hints that snagged at the back of his skull. He tried to chalk it up to paranoia, but he couldn't count on his hands the number of instances that the sense had saved their butts. Hunk mindlessly fumbled for his Lion's presence, snatching it after a few moments of trying to make contact with his partner.

"Where did those two go?" Hunk inquired aloud, and Yellow's response was delayed for several ticks, the machine grasping for straws for a proper response before producing a stuttering one.

_'Recon! Um, yes, they went to do recon, just in case the Galra show, show up.'_

"They were smiling though," Hunk frowned into his cup. "The kind of stupid smile they only talk about in books and mo-"

' _Oh_.' His mouth clamped shut, chocolate eyes squirming nervously around the building as he pulled together an idea of the scenario his two friends were currently in. It clicked together like puzzle pieces joining as one, a hidden clue being thrust into the light. He'd prided himself on being able to read others easy as a book, able to see inside their heads from the way they acted. He'd use this talent everywhere he'd go, like some sort of superpower. But his power had apparently been deflected when it came to two of his best friends.

But now it made so much sense.

"Quiznack," Hunk could feel Yellow fidget at both the word and the news that swarmed around his paladin's head. The latter sat his glass down on one of the waiter's plates, then doing his best to wiggle between those who stood between him and the Princess of Altea.

"I don't like it, still," He told Yellow. "That Kola guy seems pretty fishy, going after them like that. Have you heard from Black or Green? If he did follow them maybe they've caught the guy by now."

_'Actually, we haven't heard anything. We assumed that their plan is- never mind!'_

The native people gave him waves and grins as he passed them, the people still amazed at the living legends that were the Voltron team (A few had gone as far as to say he looked the same as he did ten thousand years ago- what did his processor even look like?). Cutting through the mass of Hoilians, he caught a glimpse of the Princess conversing with what looked like a group of reporters, with the same lights flashing from the same orb-shaped devices as the crowd outside. She kept the wide, dignified smile she always gave for the public, chattering away as she answered whatever questions they threw at her.

The reporters parted like the sea, the cameras near blinding as he leaned toward the Alteans.

"Can I talk to you two for a second?"

The smile faltered, but by the time Hunk had noticed Allura had latched onto his arm as began to drag him away from the clod. Coran fell into step closely behind, both aliens heaving a sigh of relief.

Allura intertwined her hands, blue-pink irises finding his own. "What was it you needed, Hunk?"

His thumbs twiddled and coffee bean eyes twitched around the room in revolving rounds, attempting a way to construct an explanation that didn't sound psychotic. With a swallow, he separated his hands and blurted through his words as quickly as quietly as he could manage, all with a fake smile directed to those who might've been watching.

"Look, Shiro and Pidge went out for whatever reason with their Lions and Kola followed them. I thought it was just coincidence or me worrying too much but the Queen started starring and Yellow, Red and Blue haven't heard anything from the others and now I'm _really freaking out and keep on smiling to avoid suspicion pretty please thank you_."

While Hunk sucked in air, Allura stopped dead in her tracks, turning around to the Yellow Paladin with her fingertips pressed against one another, the fake grin morphing into a grimace. Her hands clenched into fists, and she grabbed his arm tightly.

_"So you noticed it too?"_

* * *

Her grip on the bayard's handle was loose as she starred down into the lake she'd been (jokingly, but also not) eager to jump off a cliff for. The orbiting star dipped below the mountains that shadowed the valley before her, the burning atmosphere now blotted with the shades of aged paintings her mother kept on her walls. Stars freckled the sky behind her, but she found it useless to attempt to organize them by her experience or knowledge, and the water before her was much more interesting.

"Coran said it healed people," She thought aloud. "Like in the Altean pods. What's it composed of?"

She tilted her head to the side, watching the liquid dance and bobble with the light that would soon disappear from its surface. It was calming, really, a welcomed distraction in comparison to whatever the Lions were attempting or why Shiro had gotten so red-faced or why this cat-person the Black Paladin was currently restraining was trying to kill the both of them or who knew how many Galra were heading their way. Magical chemical composition would be a welcomed distraction in any case, at least in Pidge's opinion.

She blinked at it again before making a move to turn back to the two, fingernails digging into her arm and bottom lip in between her teeth.

In a matter of seconds, she watched as Kola grabbed Shiro by the cape, heaving him into the air, and chucking him over the cliff side.

* * *

The third time Keith managed to land Lance as his partner, he started to get suspicious. The first pair of instances, he supposed it was either the constant competition between the two Paladins; it wouldn't have been anything new, anyway. Just a contest to see who could be more elegant or fancy or whatever the hell other sort of reason that Lance would have for doing this to him.

But three?

As in the third time's the charm?

The awkward hands' on the borrowed suits', hips', and shoulders' stirred with their proximities was somehow incredibly uncomfortable, yet Keith wouldn't have wished it to stop for the world they stood on. He swallowed, shadowed eyes finding the Caribbean blue pair of the right leg pilot as some indescribable light shine through them, the half-Galra's heart lodged in his windpipe.

Maybe it was whatever was in the food or the drinks, he thought. When Shiro was dancing with Pidge, he had the same, doe-eyed look Keith was doing his best to drop. He didn't feel numb or giddy, nothing similar to the effects of Earth's alcohol (he only knew what that felt like when he found a bottle of Iverson's whiskey once- he loathed it), but with the reds and greens and blues and yellows passing above them, the loner couldn't see any evidence of rosy cheeks and noses from a similar substance.

Keeping the Paladin link shut off so forcefully from his side was a bit tiring albeit necessary, but why was Lance doing the same thing?

Another twist. Another clap. Another spin.

Lance now stood behind him, his bayard, which was still in its sword form, swung out to the side as a result of a certain someone's grip on his waist. He swore in every language and way he knew, cursing at the headband that withheld his bangs and cursing at Coran for making him wear this clunky armor and cursing at Lance-

"Hey," The Blue Paladin whispered, Keith jumping on instinct, metal-on-metal filling the gap between their back and chests'.

" _What_?" The latter didn't intend, nor expect for his voice to break, his response an awful squeak emitted from the back of his throat. His partner said naught about it, which he was endlessly grateful for as he swallowed the lump that stuck in his throat.

"What's up with the others over there?" He gave a slight twist of the head, Keith following his line of sight. There, assembled in a cluttered huddle, stood Hunk and the Alteans, smiles quite obviously fake, with their gazes scattered nervously about the ballroom. Keith and Hunk met eyes, the former then receiving a nudge from the latter thanks to the mental connection between the select teammates.

"I-I don't know." The half Galra twisted his head, attempting to snag a glimpse of what had caught the attention of his teammates. It was a challenge, what with the bobbing, swirling figures around them, but as soon as Keith saw it, the image was plain as day.

Queen Maor, with feline eyes narrowed and one leg crossed over the other, starred directly into his purple eyes.

* * *

 All Shiro really remembered about falling off of the cliff was that the ground, when he finally hit it, must've been the hardest surface in the universe. It took him that long, as well, to realize that he had, in fact, fallen off a cliff, and another moment to wonder how he still had any consciousness at all, what with the number of broken ribs and arm bones he must've had.

It only took another breath for the pain to arrive.

Shiro tumbled only a bit further before everything turned blue and air departed from his surroundings, lips pressed together to conserve what oxygen he retained. The Black Paladin blinked hard- the water stung his eyes- and tried to gather his bearings as quickly as he could manage. The extra weighted metal of both his prosthetic and dressage dragged Shiro's body toward the depth of the water, the earthling then doing his best to swim to the surface, torso and human arm aching all the while.

Until they didn't.

Reminiscent of the Altean healing pods, the energy-drink blue liquid began to glow, an unexplainable tingling along his wounds made him stop in his aquatic tracks, the sensation continuing and growing over his injuries until it vanished, and so did his pain.

As soon as his head broke through the water, he gave a gasping choke for air, scrambling for something to grab onto to assist pulling the rest of his frame onto the bank. Heaving and shivering, Shiro threw himself onto the golden-green land beside him, hair flat and covering his steel grey eyes.

He gave a thought to how Pidge was doing- she just saw him fall off a cliff, after all- but his thoughts were cut off by the sound of a shriek and the Paladin link burning.

* * *

 Red, retreating to a standing position, pressed her jaws together and exhaled a heavy growl. The entire situation the three remaining Lions waded in was both familiar and uncomfortable, one that they'd performed a number of times under both sets of partners. Black had attempted numerous times to set in a protocol for these sorts of things, but it never seemed to be smoothed out or named or put into action, which was the fault of none.

' _Black said Galra, Kola sneaked out, Maor is staring, and we haven't heard from the pining pair of Paladins_ ,' Yellow squirmed, anxiety streaming off him in wavelengths. ' _Why can't we grab the rest of the team and leave this planet for another ten thousand years_?'

' _We're waiting. We always wait_.'

' _And we're always attacked_.'

' _Well._..' Blue went silent for a tick, optics shuttering as she padded out her next statement. ' _That actually does make sense. Why do we let the Paladins make stupid decisions and why do we wait?'_

' _Finally, someone understands after all of these_ -'

' ** _Enough!_** ' Red snapped, whipping her head around toward the noisy pair of prattling, cub-like machines who automatically stiffened at her tone. She swung her gaze back into the building, sight focused on Keith inside. Both he and the Blue Paladin made their way to rest of the remaining team of organics, who, from what the right arm of Voltron could assume, trying their best to not look suspicious, though their performance...

Oh, these new Paladins were an absolute laugh.

The scarlet Lion leaned into her partner's mind, sneaking into their conversation with only a flick of her metal ears. Keith's head, as she discovered when they met, was various degrees more guarded and shadowed than the last monarch's of Altea. Each time she reached out, less blind navigation was required, yet as she stumbled to see through his eyes, Red could sense the ease of his shoulders at her company.

" _Hey, Red_." The greeting came like a nudge, small and welcoming, which she returned.

' _Hello, Keith, now hush and let me hear_.'

Alfor's offsprings' words floated blurrily through their shaded headspace, sharpening out with a ringing in their ears. "...o should we escape to the Lions and find Pidge and Shiro, or confront the queen now and make a public scene?"

"I don't really wanna be killed by characters from _Avatar_ , so let's do the first." Lance hissed his response at the others, gesturing toward the doors with his eyebrows raised more than Red thought was possible for such a tiny being.

"Shouldn't only one or two of us go, that way we avoid even more suspicion?" Hunk offered, shoulders risen up to his ears by this point with his hands kneading the folds of his chest plate. "And even then, after seeing us talking like this, they might still not let us go."

"What about-"

Keith cut himself off, yet it took a handful of ticks for his feline partner to relieve the source of the action. The Paladins' link was surging full of something, a raw emotion that she couldn't place due to being disconnected with it. The three gave each other uneasy glances, Keith swallowing thickly as he narrowed his violet eyes.

The pair of Alteans side-eyed each other, "What? What is it?"

"Something happened to Pidge. Something _really bad_ happened to Pidge."

* * *

 Green had seen anger on numerous occasions from numerous beings. She had witness galaxies lit aflame with war that lasted decades, seen the eyes of a warlord set on a rampage. Green was nearly stolen by Zarkon a handful of times, seen the lifeless rage she dared to say belonged to a _living man_. Now, she was witnessing the amount of loathing one universe could sheath, nearly bubbling over with such a blind, primal emotion.

But as soon as Black's Paladin was chucked over the cliff and leapt out of the water, and Pidge's eyes met both Kolas' and her own artificial set, her systems shuttered.

Trigal had been terrifying to most, a cat-deer hybrid of a creature that stood near seven feet in length with a warrior background and fire in her eyes that could make those around her cower with a single look. When they'd first met, when Green mindlessly stumbled over to her presence, Trigal had smiled crookedly with hazel eyes that held a thousand fires she had not long forgotten, rage that she kept still for the good of others. She'd watched the fire fade in those same eyes as her Paladin died on the same planet she stayed on for ten thousand years.

But when Pidge grit her teeth at the native warrior, Edera knew for an _absolute fact_ that the fire lived on.

* * *

"How dare you," Pidge spat, her bayard retracting back into its holster with a loud snap. " _You son of a bitch!_ "

She took a running start and launched herself directly toward Kola, katar launching itself directly into his chest and grappling itself there. With a brief twitch of his chin and his arm flying up, a chunk of earth blocked her beeline toward him, her shoulder colliding with the surface before she could slow her trajectory.

Without ceasing movement, she used the surface to launch herself once again at his figure, heels slamming onto the handle of her bayard, and likely breaking bones in more sections than she could count on one hand. Both fell to the golden underfoot, with the smaller leaping atop the larger with her katar pressed against his throat.

"Why are you trying to kill us?"

Bright blue eyes fluttered before closing, the Hoilian's head lolling back as he passed from the realm of consciousness. The Green Bayard retracted, Pidge jumping up from where her attacker lay groaning miserably, shoulders twitching as she stumbled toward the edge of the ledge. Somewhat collapsing and somewhat kneeling, she peered over, heart caught in her throat as she scanned for Shiro's limp body on the side of the bank.

Though, before her line of sight met the water, it met the cliff side below her, where he offered a lopsided grin a few feet below, eyes tired but determined.

"At least I followed your plan."

* * *

 When Blue nudged his mind with the fact that all those unaccounted for returned, Lance was surprised.

When he saw both Shiro and Pidge's jaws set and a figure thrown over the former's shoulder like a sack of bird seed, Lance was confused.

When Pidge slammed both doors open, gaining the whole room's attention, and when Shiro plopped the form down, whom of which was revealed to be the creepy warrior guy they met the previous day with yellow liquid running out of his nose and staining his shirt, Lance swallowed thickly and reached for his bayard.

This wouldn't end well.

"Your Highness," Shiro's tone was laced with restrained malice toward the woman who sat on the Hoilian throne, eyes narrowed into slits while he folded his arms. "I believe he belongs to you."

The audience- which the mass morphed in to- flung their head toward Maor. The queen, who was sitting with one leg over the other, her cheeks bitten in and one hand resting utop her knee. Her unblinking gaze was finally broken by a shrug and a dip of her head, pigmented lips pursed together. "Yes, I believe as such. But what have you done to him?"

"What _we_ have done to _him_? How about what _he_ tried to do to _us_?" Pidge threw out her hands, stepping toward the monarch with the mass parting like a sea before her. The guards shifted before the thrown, weapons drawn with their fangs clenched together toward the young woman. "He tried to _kill_ us! He threw Shiro," She jerked her thumb back, "off of a cliff, tried to shoot him in the back of the head, and told us all about how you sent him to ' _make sure the Galra don't reach this planet_ '."

Murmurs and comments erupted instantly throughout the high class Hoilians, questioning authorities along with credibilities while they glanced between Pidge and Maor, awaiting a response from their leader. She stood after at least a minuet of her silence, eyes blazing as she clutched onto the side of her dress, teeth bared, though her voice remained somewhat chipper, shoulders rolled back with a frigid half smirk drawn on like lip liner.

"You _dare_ come into my palace, insult me and my intentions, not to mention severely injure one of my best warriors and guard members, after my people and I allowed you shelter on our planet, as well as food, drinks, and entertainment, with no drawbacks? _You're being serious_?" The yellow dress was dropped, as was any sort of calm emotion she retained. "I-I cannot believe you, legends on this world for a millennia, would do _this_!"

Lance half expected for Pidge to take a step back, to show some sort of stunned or fiery reaction. It was, after all, rather daring of them to accuse such a thing while at such an event, but neither of the Paladins budged. In fact, Shiro shifted Kola's form forward with his foot, standing beside the young woman, who scoffed, ripping a page straight out of Shiro's 'Patience yields focus' book.

"All of that's kinda cancelled out when you order someone to kill us, he admits it, and tells us that there's Galra in your atmosphere without notifying us or your citizens."

The crowd went into an uproar, screaming, gasping, and fists thrown into the air at the mention of the taboo conquering race and the attempted murder of two aforementioned legendary defenders. Maor froze, gaping at her subjects before her who screeched her name in a demand for answers to these accusations that were sputtered by figures they near worshiped. The remainder of the team filled the gap between their own and the monarch. Lance summoned his bayard from his hip, pointing the long-range blaster toward the woman in the yellow dress. Guards moved closer to Maor, hands out and ready to attack.

"My Queen, is this true?" Someone stepped near from the crowd, shouting as loud as they could manage amid the wriggling crowd. She blinked, not daring to look at her subjects, but instead looking at the Paladins of Voltron, who stared back at her, awaiting an attack they'd now be prepared to counter.

The Hoilians were getting louder, angrier. They roared at their leader, huddling so close to the guards that they were forcefully shoved away from Maor, yet it was to no avail, as they came back in yelling waves. The ground began to tremble under their feet, the power of the natives causing a chain reaction of emotionally manipulated surroundings beginning to react at their rage.

'Hopefully they don't bring this place down,' He thought, readjusting his grip on the bayard.

" _Everyone, **stop**_ ," Shiro came up from behind him, using the most commanding and authoritive tone Lance had ever heard, cybernetic appendage glowing its lavender hue for all to see. At their legend's demand, the high class of the planet softened their screeches, movement slowed, not as urgent. Feline eyes and pointed ears shifted toward his direction, noise near silenced as they listened intensely for either orders or statements.

"You've got a much bigger problem than her right now," He began, gesturing upwards. "If what both your queen and one of your warriors say is true, if the Galra are approaching, you need to start preparing."

"We have never fought against them!" Someone yelled.

"Most know little about fighting!" Offered another.

"Its time to begin, then." The Black Paladin spoke. "The strongest among you need to keep watch for the time being and be prepared to attack. The rest of you need to evacuate your cities and any areas that the Galra may pinpoint."

"The Paladins will ward off any attackers that head this way- we'll contact those on the ground from the Castle of Lions," Coran and Shiro shared a firm, commanding nod, the team filtering out of the ballroom, leaving a frozen-in-her-place Maor and a thundering group of Hoilians on their booted and styled heels.

* * *

_Knock, knock._

It had been a total of two hours and thirty seven minuets since they'd scanned the atmosphere of the world, finding a cluster of Galra fighters nearing their location only minuets after they took off. They were basic fighters, not hard to take care of in a very small bit of time, and the Hoilians collected the metal once it crashed with the intention of using it for construction purposes.

It had been a total of two hours and seventeen minuets since the planet was clear of hostile invaders and since they touched back down onto the planet and spoke with a cluster of highly ranked Hoilian officials who had gathered the masses and imprisoned their now past queen. They shoved gifts in the off-worlders' arms (samples of their craftsmanship, medicine, whatever water Shiro got chucked into), pouring on praises for their help and discovery of their beloved Queen's betrayal. The Legend of Voltron would only become stronger.

It had been an hour and three minuets since Green shuffled back in her hanger, wiggling down for Pidge to get out, pulsing waves of comfort in her tiny 'Bird's' direction as Pidge stumbled down the corridor, clawing at her eyes to rid herself of the mascara that itched. The Green Paladin mumbled a warning, remembering what all she'd heard about her partner- Allura's _'The Lions love to gossip_ ,' whatever the reason was for tricking Shiro and her to run off together-

It had been forty minuets since Pidge whipped off the previous Paladin's dress and soaked in the shower, rubbing her new array of watercolor bruises and whatever flesh-toned colors remained on her face.

It had been a total fourteen minuets since she flopped onto her bed with Matt's glasses shoved to the bridge of her nose, thin shorts and a tank top her dressage, with her huddled mass of blankets clumped together against her chest. Only the fairy lights she'd bought from a space café and the series of opened holoscreens above the nearby desk which played gentle music gave the room any sort of illumination, glittering gold and teal and twinkling just so and earth music playing so softly where they attempted to lure her to sleep.

_Knock, knock._

And now someone was knocking on her bedroom quarter's door, and she was ready to strangle whoever it was.

Yet, as the third round of knocks began and Pidge shifted her face toward the opening in the wall, fingernails digging into the sheets, she began to wonder: just who would come knocking after a mission when they knew for a fact she wouldn't be in a talking mood?

Lance, Keith, and Coran wouldn't have a reason to see her, and she'd seen Hunk crash as soon as he stomped toward his room. Allura held a discussion with the Blades centered about both the planet they occupied for less than a day and the mission of utmost importance they'd perform in a matter of days, last she checked, and Shiro-

Shiro wondered off after they all landed their Lions, and whenever he needed help from his night terrors and flashbacks, it was as if he was programmed to come to her door and-

"Come in," she wiggled up, awaiting for the Altea door to slide ajar while she crisscrossed her lanky legs. Voltron's head Paladin offering an apologetic smile as he silently entered her dimly-lit bedroom, arms crossed and chest lowered.

"Wanted to make sure you weren't too dinged up after tonight," He explained, white bangs hiding his eyes.

Pidge shrugged softly, gesturing beside her with a nudge of her shoulder and tilt of her chin. "If I'm okay? You were thrown off a cliff, fell in a puddle of chemicals that the Castle's system still hasn't finished identifying, all after beating up an alien hostile. Are you okay?"

Shiro laughed- he laughed- at her question as if it was a joke and mirrored her movement as he bent over and plopped on the huddled mass of sheets and blankets she'd kicked out from under her. One leg crossed over the other, gazes meeting as he assembled a grin at the Green Paladin. "A regular Thursday for both of us, then."

Smiles and exhales sharpened, Pidge digging a hand into a fistful of tangled curls at the back of her neck. A response wasn't necessary- on any of his late night visits, they never were. The Paladin Bond inked in the blank spaces that the lack of conversation left, along with whatever sort of physical comfort either required: a shared room, a lean against the shoulder, the humming of a long forgotten song.

But Shiro didn't need any comforting that night. He lacked the dark circles and bags under his eyes, the sniffling from restraining sobbing, the shuddering up to his back. No, that night, Shiro's smile was warm and peaceful and he looked free in the stead of exhausted, dark eyes missing the roaring tides of terror they lately carried close.

But, what was _that?_

That swallow, the nervous clutching of the ridge between a shoulder and his neck.

That fumbling on his side of the link?

"I had a lot of fun tonight. Well, you know, besides the whole 'avoiding attempted murder' thing."

She hugged her knees against her chest, signaling her agreement by showing her teeth. "Besides that."

Another pregnant pause. Another slow movement of eyes and hands.

"I guess you won, Katie," Takashi Shirogane whispered, mouth drawn up on one side. He kneaded the uneven mend between flesh and metal on his faux appendage, refusing to meet her gaze as he continued. "I guess you are a better dancer."

Gasoline must've coated the mental connection between the two, his so-quiet-nearly-silent a match that lit her head aflame. She became suddenly aware of how the close the two were, of how'd they'd been. The soft, alien music of the people they were leaving strung through her ears, the gentle waterfall of the velvet-colored cape spilling over both ghosting along her arms, the steps to a dance fresh in her head. The images clomped together into a moving painting created by not only her, but her brother's best friend.

Pidge couldn't move. She wouldn't, in fear of whatever this was shattering into a hundred thousand shards of a ruined moment. She couldn't find it in herself to even blush- no blood rushed below her skin, no heartbeat elevating. Perhaps it was shock- such a genuine comment directed to her? She just sat there, bare knees huddled against her chest with her gape soft and eyebrows raised, hands drifting from her legs onto the bed.

"... yeah." Matt's glasses slid down her nose as she mumbled without thinking. "S'pose so."

The song from her holoscreens faded away into the sounds of shallow breathing accompanied by the thumping under their chests, the artificial light dimming, leaving only the faint glow of white fairy lights and their reflections to light the cluttered area. Fire wavering from the back of their skulls, she watched as he rose, stepping over to the door with silent footsteps. Whisking her oxygen along with him, Pidge watched as he grinned over his shoulder, crows' feet planted at his eyes.

"Goodnight, Katie."

 At that moment, as the door shut after his silhouette and her figure crashed down to the mass of pillows below her and air branched back into her lungs, she gave a long sigh. Her mind was blank, devoid of any thought and any feeling from any Paladin link, and she enjoyed it that way. Blank would be easier than processing whatever the hell just happened, what happened that night, and what would continue to happen.

She decided to pin the topic to the back of her brain; she could worry about Shiro and the thousands of mixed signs she was receiving in just a few days after the Galra were stopped and the Teleduv was used.

They would be stopped, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise that the next chapter will come relatively soon- I've already begun working on it, and chapter seven is half-way finished. Tell me what you all think, and as always, thank you all for your comments and for reading!


	6. Void

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wrong.  
> Wrong.  
> Wrong.  
> Without him, the whole team was wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEY SO WHO'S READY FOR A FULL ANGST CHAPTER THAT TURNED OUT HIS WAY BY PURE ACCIDENT HMM?

It was Allura who led Pidge out of the empty Black Lion.

Pidge, who was shaking and bleeding and bruised and tired, said not a word. A switch had been flipped somewhere in her mind, devoiding her of feeling or thinking or hardly being able to move. The princess snagged her by her forearms, guiding her down the exit ramp of the deactivated Lion with the solem looks of Coran and Hunk behind the pair. Her steps were jagged, uneven and mechanical, devoid of any energy or attempted placed behind them, her hands limp at her sides. Allura's hand on the middle of her armored back became the only thing that kept her moving along the corridors of the Castle of Lions.

She didn't remember taking her Paladin armor off, slipping out of the bloodied undersuit and setting it back in its casing with her helmet being scooted over with Allura's foot as Pidge's form rested in her arms.

She didn't remember being gently arranged into her room, wounds treated with the water from Hoilian and hair brushed and arranged out of the way, glasses slid off of her nose and into a case on the surface closest to her bed.

She didn't remember falling alseep, burried by countless blankets with the princess of Altea sitting close by, watching her friend with worried eyes, her huddled figure next to the younger's.

And when the Green Paladin woke up, she didn't remember exactly what made her so fully numb.

She had no idea where she was, either.

It had been with a gasp and a leap up- a fighting, thrashing leap- her tired, swollen eyes were blurry, nothing around her recogniziable, but every synapse in her head was thrashing and screaming for her to _run_ , run far away from whereever the _hell_ she currently resided. Her attempts were weak, her body drained of both energy and quintessence, but Pidge tried her damned hardest nonetheless. Allura pinned her arms down, pleading with Pidge to listen and to calm down, but her words were drowned out with the brunette's flight-or-flight response going hyperactive.

* * *

 

Allura moved her arms around the smaller woman's frame, trapping her arms down and burrying her face in her honey-colored hair. The fighting slowed due to this restraning, but Pidge replaced it with her own verbal demands for release, never ceasing in her attempt to escape.

The princess knew that Pidge wasn't fully aware of her actions- her eyes were glazed over, lacking any real anger towards anyone, instead fearful and _so, so sad_.

The Paladins had been closer to the fight than she had ever been, which caused more mental damage than she would've liked. She remembered a year ago, when they had stumbled into the Castle and they all first met. Their eyes were so much brighter, minds so much brighter and optimistic. She watched as war wore them down, frayed their edges and tested everything they had.

It took a toll.

A bowl dropped, they reached for their bayards. The smallest of alarms went off, they all jumped and prepared a fighting stance. During the night, some walked the halls in fear for what awaited them in their sleep.

They called it PTSD- Post-Tramatic Stress Disorder. Apparently Earthlings held wars multiple times a centry, so many affected there was a medical term for whatever _this_ was.

Pidge was scarred. Allura was scarred.

The demands and yells to let her go and the wriggling slowed to a cold halt. The younger's fingers twisted into the older's nightgown, thrashing turning to shuddering and uneven breathing into her shoulder.

 _"He's not gone,"_ Came the small voice, lacking any of the characteritics that made Pidge, well, Pidge. This wasn't the clever, snippy Green Paladin, Guardian of the Forest, tone ultimately sarcastic though it overflowed with curiosity.

This wasn't a legendary savior, nor a soldier, nor a tech wizard, or an adult.

This was the girl behind those phrases the universe had assigned her.

No, this was the girl who lost it all. Pidge's family was taken by the Galra, she chopped her hair off as to sneak into an institiute under a fake idenitity, was flew head first into the front lines of a war. This was the Earthling who had loved and loss and fought and bled and now was the Earthling who mourned.

Her father was gone.

Her brother was gone.

And the only person that tied her to them, that tied her to what must've been a simplier time in the universe was gone too.

"I'm sorry, Pidge," She whispered back, resting her cheek on her friend's head, massaging smooth circles between the healing scars she's gained only vargas ago. Allura couldn't fully comprehend it; how could so much happen to this girl in such little time? Was fate such a merciless mistress?

" _So sorry_." The last Pricess of Altea supposed so. Pidge's story wasn't all that different from her own, though instead of allowing the brunette to heal, to give her time to grieve, she stumbled onto a number of overwhelming events Allura didn't know how she'd process.

"He's _not_ , Allura." A crack in her voice, a stronger grip on her own back. Allura's mouth crumped up, pastel eyes sewed shut; she couldn't take this. She couldn't watch Pidge shatter like this, couldn't watch Team Voltron wither and split after the absense of their Black Paladin.

She had once before. It would be the best form of tourture to do it again.

"He's- Shiro's-"

A wheeze. A choke. Another wheeze and a tightening of their shared, broken embrace.

 _And then a wail_.

A heartbroken, sickening, bloodcurddling screech of terror and agony and _hurt_. The Green Paladin's emotional link to the Lions and to her fellow chosen ones branched out the bitter, wrenching, _hollowing_ trio of emotions swing a chain reaction into place, like a forest- the forest that embodied Pidge- burning to _ash_.

Her father had tethered her lifeforce to the mechanical fivesome of his creation, and in that moment, she despised him for it. She despised him because the fire was linked to her and she was burned by the fires inside those in the Castle. She despised Shiro, whereever he was, if he was still alive, for rendering those left in his wake so utterly powerless without him.

And her loathing for Zarkon, dead as he may be, grew tenfold.

Allura buried her face in Pidge's fuzzy hair, tears cascading down her cheeks, the two clenching the other against themselves tightly as they sobbed and sniffed and shivered and _shattered_.

* * *

 

_'Where do you think he went, Edera?'_

_'I don't know.'_

_'Do you think Nebula does?'_

_'I.. I don't know,'_ Green's head fell against the top of Blue's, that of which rested atop her paws.

With their Paladins reeking of death and loss, tucked away in their rooms for the night, and with Black, sprawled out in his hanger from his- or his small, stressed partner's- crash landing, the concious souls in the bulding gathered together in a huddle beside their incapacitated leader, tangled together.

Lying next to, atop, and under the left arm of Voltron, the other four felines found themselves staring at Black, relishing the closeness of those in the Lion pile, mechanical ears flattened and tails swishing from side to side as they did their damn hardest to calm their organic partners into rest. Their frames ached from their mass loss of quintescence, links strong yet weak from such raw emotions leaking from their Paladins hearts and minds.

They were hurt. They were hurting. They were machines, although, machines built for war and conquest that forced themselves to overcome suffing and loss, as it was all they had seen. They would heal.

But would their Paladins, such emotionally driven beings, ever heal? The hurt that they currently kept was as searing as a massive wound, bleeding out from their heads as would any other injury they'd recieve in the midst of battle. No doubt, this would leave a drastic impact upon each organic, but there were some wounds even magic couldn't fix.

Red, which had her front strung on Voltron's black and golden shoulderplate, gave a soft mumble of a growl _. 'So what, do we switch Paladins since Nebula's-'_

 _'He's not dead.'_ Yellow was sure in tone; Green admired his faith in the humans, that of which she doubted any of the other, at least online, Lions, retained _. 'You've seen what he's capable of. He fought off Zarkon's influence of Nebula single-handedly, he'll be fine.'_

His head turned to his side, where the ivy colored feline met his gaze. _'Right?'_

Voltron's left arm returned her head atop the larger one on her claws, eyes flickering once more over the silent Lion before the huddled, cuddling mass of his teammates. She had not a clue where Black's Paladin was, no Black to tell them just where he was, if the Lion had an idea, and not a clue what to do in the meantime.

 _'Jeonsa,'_ She started, the Scarlet mass on her back moving not a mechanical muscle though her name was muttered _. 'You and your Paladin are the leaders in standing. What do we do from here?'_

She adjusted herself on Voltron's shoulderplate after a bit, leaning her muzzel down to rest on the shoulders of Yellow, eyes deactivating. _'We'll see how long it'll take for Keith to open up at the possiblity of piloting Nebula. Until then, there's nothing we can do but wait.'_

* * *

 

Keith's own nightmares were never severe enough for him to loose an inch of sleep from them, nor was any flashback into battle that he'd had. He simply calmed himself down, took a number of deep breaths, and settled himslef down the best he could at that moment in time and moved on.

He could manage well on his own; he'd been used to it for a number of years after his father dissapeared and when Shiro left on the mission to Kerberos.

When he went missing the first time.

The fact that Keith was lacking the person who knew him best- hell, _his brother_ , screw his now nonexsisent bloodlines- for a second time was eating him alive, tearing him apart from the hole in his chest he dared to call a heart.

Perhaps that was why he woke up from his nightmare that night, sweat sticking to him as his second skin and head pounding as if a beating drum was stitched inside. He stumbled out of his rom, shoulders heaving up and back as he wondered down the hall, searching for any open space compared to his cramped bedroom.

He found himself, after a number of minuets traversing blindly around the Castle, standing at the entrance to the Red Lion's hanger, dimmed Altean lights outlining her frame with an eeire, scarlet glow that pouring into the room around the still, silent machine. She sat like a sphynx, head tossed back with a regality she rarely retained as of late, scrapping it for familarity with her organic counterpart, who now stood before her, rubbing his eyes.

"Hey, Red," He padded into the room, reaching up to the top of her claws and yanking the rest of his lanky body unto it. His Lion stayed still as he treked up to her back, climbing from one metallic crevice to the rest until he landed where he wished. There he laid, with his arms and legs streached out like a star, eyes combing the sealed hatch above of the multitude of the real, glowing celestial objects.

It was times like this he missed his shack in the woods.

Granted, it was incredibly lonely and he had little to eat besides what Garrison food he stole in mass when the half-Galra was booted from the institution, but it was his home. Keith's head was filled with memories of his father and himself before the former vanished, and even the roots of his heart buried in the wooden floorboards telling him to wait for both him and his mother, though he hardly remebered her face. Even when he resuced the others, years after hed been accustomed to being alone, and now, tens of millions of lightyears away from his tiny homeplanet, he could still inhale the scent of the earthen desert, see his dad's incredibly soft smile that was reserved for his son and his son only, and somehow the sound of his mother's gentle laughter.

The only constant between his cabin and what he now considered his home was what surrounded the Red Paladin, no matter where he traveled or what he faced: the stars.

The constellations here were new, unfamiliar. No Orion, no Taurus, no North Star. Nothing grounding him to Earth. Nothing to ground him to Shiro, or to his parents, or to anything from whereever the hell he came from.

Keith, at this point, was shaking.

Was he lost? Was he just adrift in space with a bunch of strangers, risking his life for countless other faces he couldn't know and couldn't see? Why was Shiro gone, why were the Galra still around, why couldn't everything just go away and give him time to _think and process all of thisbullshitwhy-_

Red move from underneath him, retreating from her silent, standing position to that of her laying down, glowing eyes turning to meet his with her head turned crookedly. The man with the mullet assumed she'd done something in the pyshicic link between them, as his appendages' tremmoring began to slow to a halt, mind settling to where the questions began to slip from his grasp.

 _'Hush,'_ The connection hadn't been strong enough between the two in the weeks that Shiro disappered for verbal communication, so when she spoke, it startled him. _'There's no need for that kind of thinking, idiot cub.'_

Keith made not a sound. Instead, he scrambled up, traveling up the neck of the female Lion until he reached one of her ears, a structure that was almost as tall as he was. The half-Galra leaned onto it, sliding down atop her head, blunt fingers digging into the thick crevice of Alien metal. Red shifted her head to her peds below the pair as slowly as she could as to not startle her partner, offering what comfort she could.

To both Keith's and his Lion's suprise, he took it without question.　

* * *

 

A month, Coran noted, must've been a rather long time.

When the searing, bloodied wound that the second Black Paladin left in his absence began to scab, Hunk had told the ginger while they sat out plates for dinner that it had been little over a month since he vanished.

The last Altean man knew all that could happen in an Earthling's hour, day, week.

It had only taken an hour for the new Paladins to grow on him, though their odd physic, strangle clothing and instinct to question almost everything the Princess or himself said had at first made him extremely nervous about the face of the universe.

It had only taken a day for this set of Paladins to form Voltron- an extremely impressive fact, he was still astonished that they hadn't been a team for decapheobs, as even the previous set couldn't do it as fast.

It had only taken a week for the Castle to be overtaken by Galra invaders, sending Lance into a catatonic state, Pidge into a ruthless weapon-like version of herself, and both the Yellow Paladin and himself off planet.

And in a month after the tide-turning battle with the Teleduv?

Keith had stepped into the shoes that his predacessor had left behind, which, he found, were rather large and nearly impossible to fill. Lance had readily accepted becoming the Red, quintesence simliar to that of Alfor's in that of acceptance and support. Then dear, darling Allura, whom he swore to her father with he'd protect with everything he'd have- ' _Not a scratch will land upon her, I swear,'_ he remembered saying- was the Blue.

Things were drastically different without a seventh soul residing in the Castle. The previous Paladins, those who fought for Altea and Dibazaal and the rest of their homes, never required as much emotional support as these did. After all, they weren't in a last-ditch attempt of a war, weren't teenagers, weren't ripped from their home planet and shoved face-first into an uncomfortable situation. No, they were rulers, warriors, those who were built to stand tall, facing armies with their own and fighting though the hands of others.

The Earthlings?

The Earthlings were strange. Strange eyes, strange bodies, strange ears. Strange accents, strange habits.

Strange minds.

Coran hadn't heard a complain about what circumstances the war had brought to them since the first 'days' of knowing the five. They'd mumbled about the drills the Alteans put them through, about how Voltron wouldn't be formed or how exhausted they were or frustrated or _Stars knows_ because they whined like newborn Yalmors.

_Strange._

Not a word after the Castle was overtaken by Sendak. Sure, Lance occasionally commented about how homesick he was, Hunk wishing they'd have a change in scenery from the bleakness of a dull planet or nebula, Keith grumbling of the Galra racing after them.

No comment of what hurt, or how tired they were, or if they were scarred. Coran didn't have a need to ask why they shut themselves up; the last Altean War had the same effect on the officers and commanders that would meet with the King, the soldiers that Alfor insistent on visiting the same. But the war lasted for decades, and this had lasted for less than two years.

As he stood in the kitchen, frowning as he watched Hunk finish setting down the plates, he thought over how long a month was and how strange the humans were.

* * *

 

Not a word.

When Keith activated Black, before the new pair's beginning battle, he was questioned by his mechanical teammates of the location of his previous partner. The other Lions shoved their way into his hanger, heads and tails lowered and awaitng the answer to the question that didn't need to be asked or prompted.

He didn't move, not an inch.

Green wiggled past the others, planting herself next to their leader. Her head, pointed toward his own, shifted to the side, the other three Lions padding closer, silent all the while.

Black swung his gaze to meet Green's. The others froze midstep, watching their leader with careful eyes and lowered tails. They couldn't be sure of what had happened, of what traces of Zarkon's last actions remained on the largest machine. Though, when the trio noticed how pitiful he appeared- shoulders slouched and curved in, ears twitched down- it was painfully obvious that his AI was now alone, no longer haunted by his past, corrupted partner, but now without the comfort of his second.

 _'I do not know,'_ Muttered his barritone voice. Black watched as the quartet huddled together, a prompt for him to expand upon his quiet, small-sounding comment. If he was organic, perhaps the head of Voltron would've wrung his hands, scratched the back of his neck, or fold his limps akimbo; but instead his muzzel directed itself at the ground, and their mental connection to him was full of a concoction of confusion, anger and something sourly bittersweet.

_'When we kil-destroyed Zarkon, everything went dark after. I-I..'_

' _You what?'_ Red pressed, eager and nervous and demanding. All knew she wasn't the best with these sorts of things, the trait present as she teetered on her legs. The others knew this investigating wouldn't end well on both parties involved. ' _You have to know something! The humans have been pitiful without him, and we can't afford another Zarkon situation, so why-'_

 _'I said I don't know,'_ He snapped his jaw her way, the leader of the Pride leaping up with glistening jaws, his side of the link hurling into a guarded and agressive ball of emotions. Red reacted in tune, mimicing his stance with her ears curved back and her eyes narrowed, the others silent as they let the fued play out, as they'd learn to do.

 _'The last thing I remeber is Shiro unlocking my wings, and that's it,'_ Black's growl near shook the hanger walls with it's barritone level, Blue, Yellow, and Red lowering their heads.

_'The next thing I know I'm stumbling for your previous. All that I know is that he's not dead, I know that- but I don't know where he is, and that is final.'_

Wih a straightening over his back and a looming shadow cast over Red, he finished speaking, snapping his jowls shut with golden light leaking from his optics. _'Make no mistake, Shirogane is not dead and nor is Zarkon. Doubt that and the war will be lost.'_

 


	7. Return

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He came back, but he wasn't the same.
> 
>  
> 
> AKA a Shiro-centric chapter that I wrote in a matter of days as to get it out before the next season.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ALRIGHTY SO  
> This chapter really kicked my ass- I couldn't get any motivation to write it, and when Avengers: Infinity War came out, it had me writing Marvel for a month. So This is me, squishing in the remaining half of season 3 and the first episode of season 4 into a rushed chapter before season 6 gets out and ruins all of our lives.

It had been three months.

A full ninety-two days before they had found their exhausted and near-fatal leader in a Galra fighting pod, empty of any supplies or a significant amount of oxygen, his body slumped over in the seat. Two thousand, two hundred seventeen painful, excruciating hours since she and the others had scrambled into his Lion and found _absolutely nothing but a bayard,_ the team fearing the worst. Fifty-three thousand, two hundred eight minuets since she had lost the only connection to her missing family that she had left.

Pidge leaned against the wall outside of his room, arms thrust into her pockets and her teeth biting into the inside of her cheeks. For the past three months, she had despised Shiro's bedroom- the door was always closed and the touchpad next to it glowing, the innards of the room kept dusted off and neat, everything in perfect order, ready for his return by means of the Alteans. The quarters reminded her of a memorial, a grave.

The same one that the other Paladins refused to visit when he was missing.

The Green Paladin supposed it was more than just sentiment- of course it made up most of it, although. No one wanted a reminder of a lost family member or of a failed mission, regardless whether they be MIA or a casualty, much less when the fate of the universe depended on their presences. Perhaps, she thought, it was a sort of unmarked mourn site, a sign of just how much they could lose and what power it could hold over them, a wake-up call and a cruel reminder that they were stuck smack dab in the middle of an interstellar war.

Cruel was putting it _nicely_. In reality, it was like if someone gutted Team Voltron and left them out to bleed.

She let out a long exhale, taking Matt's glasses off and rubbing her strained eyes with the ends of her palms. It had taken a over the span of a week in a healing pod for Shiro to heal enough to stand halfway straight again, and a few days before Shiro had the courage to see anyone but the right hand, now head, of Voltron.

And somehow, just with her luck _, she_ was the first one he wanted to see besides his brother. She figured that she should be glad, at least he was feeling well enough to take visitors, yet anxiety made her hands jittery and her eyes flash to and fro and her mind boot into overtime. She hoped, nay, prayed that he wasn't in as bad of shape as she feared, though Coran and Allura kept sending awkwardly shaped bottles and bright liquids she assumed were medicines his way.

He was just about dead when they finally found him.

* * *

_The large, hiccup-like gasp that came from Keith echoed across the comms as they pulled their Lions into the Castle, the surge of hope that streaked like lightning across their shared consciousness making her jump in the pilot seat. Pidge cursed loudly, the scrapes and bruises she'd received only minuets ago still throbbing and the startle helped none. She opened her mouth, ready to ask what the hell had excited the half-Galra so much, but when the Lions started making noise, piloting themselves to clutter around the ship he was in?_

_Oh God._

_She knew exact what- scratch that- exactly who it was._

_He was back._

_Shiro had returned._

_Keith used Black to drag the ship that he was in- a standard Galra fighter pod- the crumbling vessel landing catty-corner with its passenger still slumped over in its seat. Now that he was close enough, the four remaining original Paladins could finally connect with him again- though what little consciousness Shiro retained was a murky mix of fear and relief. _Keith and Hunk had first managed to crack the fighter pod ajar, tearing what they could away with the Yellow Paladin's strength and the current Black's bayard, their commander slumped limply in the pilot's seat, eyes hardly cracked open with the edges of his lips tugged at slightly. Shiro was dead silent, yet his expression said everything they needed to know.__

**_'I'm so glad to see you- but get me the hell out of this.'_ **

_They did as they were commanded._

_Pidge had only just managed to scramble into the hallway by the med-bay when Allura had called out to her from the room, her features set and her tricolored eyes flickering to and fro with concoction of determination and nervousness as the alien motioned to the other female on the ship. Pidge envied the Princess for what seemed like the hundredth time; she knew how to shove her emotions away and do her job, unlike herself, who's heart was thundering in her ears and voice chanting a number of pessimistic outcomes to their predicament._

_"They've just gotten him out of the Galra ship, they're dragging him this way." Allura tore her Paladin helmet clean off her head, setting it on an unoccupied table, which Pidge copied in a hurried fashion._

_"How is he?" She asked, throat dry as she awaited an answer that hopefully wouldn't confirm her fears._

_"Alive, and that's enough." She turned and gestured for the younger girl to come further into the medbay. Coran and Lance were bent over the healing pod of choice, the ginger programing it a fast as he could with Lance watching over, but with the muttered cursing from both of them and the flickering light of the pod, the progress was slow going, at best. She wiggled past them and yanked the pod closer, hands moving as fast as she could force them to as the Green Paladin finished the settings and slapped the panel close, screen blinking with the final few setting questions left for Coran as she moved toward the doorway._

_"...we got him!" Keith's voice and the pair's shared frantic footsteps echoed throughout the hallway and room; she could tell from their uneven breaths and hurried pace that their leader must've been in an awful condition, fear trickling up from her neck from the Paladin bond. Dragging him around the corner and into the room, the panting Black and Yellow Paladins presented their leader to the rest of the team, his arms around their shoulders and his head hanging limp._

_Pidge's stomach lurched up into her throat._

_His complexion was a sickly, deadly pale, the bags under his eyes dark and purple as if all the blood has retreated from the surface of his body, his skin sticking to the weakened and strained muscles. His once determined steel eyes now gazed blurrily at the floor, drained of any energy or soul they had previously retained. Healing, white scars riddled the surface of his skin, growing stubble littering his chin and long, stringy and matted hair encircling his shoulders. The odd, untimely armor that hardly clung to his thinner-than-comfortable frame shone with matte rebel colors and dents that were hopefully from another's wear, the helmet most likely abandoned as soon as he inhale the Castle's air supply._

_Her throat went dry, knees shaky as she tried her best to not let the sight get the best of her. 'He wasn't this bad when he crashed down to Earth,' she thought, 'He was bruised at had scratches, sure, but wasn't starved near to death, didn't have awkward and jagged healing scars across the visible skin.' She was drawn back to realty as Coran called out from behind her, "Number Five, I need you to keep him awake while Hunk and I finish this up, we don't know what sort of state he's in- Keith, Lance, sit him down over there and try to remove that armor."_

_Lance took Hunk's place as the Yellow Paladin neared Coran, the pair carrying their leader guiding him toward a medical table and gently sitting his still form down, peeling off bits of the clunky armor while awaiting Pidge to do her task. She swallowed the thick lump in her throat, tearing off one of her gloves and setting it next to his hunched figure, rolling her next words around in her mouth. Setting her ungloved hand on his chest, she sighed before clearing her throat._

_"Hey Takashi," She met Keith's eyes for a moment, both hoping the name would grant his fleeting attention and consciousness. "Can you hear me?"_

_It took a number of frightful, agonizing seconds for the previous Black Paladin to respond, his eyes fluttering up to hers. The corners of Shiro's lips turned upward as he offered a crooked grin, managing to sputter out a response. "H-hey."_

_"Don't force yourself to smile," The Green Paladin scolded, watching his cloudy gaze attempt to settle on herself. "You're tired enough as it is."_

_"I m.. missed you," He stammered instead, the look of kindness unmistakable that slowly drew across his features, smile lopsided and expression warm. His figure was tugged side to side as the armor came off, shucked into a haphazardly made pile, the undersuit torn and shredded as per the regular Galra prison garb. She made a mental note to check his future scans for a new number of torture scars- there was no doubt the Empire was overjoyed to get the infamed Champion back, the witch most likely experimenting or torturing the poor man._

_"We missed you too, Shiro." The Green Paladin responded as soft as she could, glancing at Coran behind them, who gave a thumbs up. Her gaze returned to the previous Black Paladin, watching as Keith and lance scooped their arms under his and pulled Shiro towards the pods. Something about either his forced movement or the cryopods themselves flipped Shiro like a switch- they watched as he began to jerk, or twist in order to stay away from the devices. Though he was starved, dehydrated, and exhausted, he fought free of both Keith and Lance, tearing away from them while he protested being place in the shuttle-shaped object._

_The previous Black Paladin shoved both of them away from himself, stumbling back a number of steps as he clutched his head. Pidge raced in front of his, grabbing the bloodstained exosuit as she attempted to reason with him. "Shiro, you're not gonna get any better if you don't get in there!"_

_The look in his eyes was that of both confusion and anger; she assumed he was terrified of either being unconscious or being placed in the device. She watched from the corner of her eyes as Coran filled a needle with what she guessed was anesthetic, watching as the oldest of the Paladins paused to look down at her._

_"I'm not going back there again," He hissed, shaking his head as he grabbed her wrists, shaking them as he trying to explain. " **I'm not going back there again!"**_

_"Shiro, you're safe, I promise!" Pidge insisted as Coran drew closer, his steps slow and quiet as they met eyes. Pidge's job would be the same- keep him awake and distracted until Coran got him inside the device. If he went in there awake and in this sort of state, he would likely break the pod before it healed him._

_"I'm not," His breathing was faster, she could feel his pulse through his fingertips. His gaze fluttered about the Team that stood in front of him, his frame teetering as if he was desperately clinging onto the nonexistent energy that he claimed his own. "I'm not safe here, none of you are. Listen to me, **I-I can't go under, you'll all be in danger, you can't let me go-"**_

_Three seconds was all it took for the needle to be injected into his neck, his body to fall onto hers, and the remainder of the team to shut him into the device, sighing with relief._

* * *

  _After Coran had announced it would at least four days for him to be able to come out, Pidge practically moved her entire workshop in the med-bay. She brought her makeshift laptop by where he remained, typing furiously at a code she had yet or relentlessly checking his vitals with hardy an in between. Pidge stayed nearly all night until she sunk into exhaustion or was carried off into her room by one of the others, who often joined her in waiting (namely Keith and Hunk- the first of whom sat silently next to her and stared at the ground, the latter came in with blankets and food and kind words)._

_The ginger Altean recommended rest for the returned Earthling when he finally woke up, which he surprisingly took to heart. Keith moved him to his room and kept his violet eyes glued to him at all times, being the Black Paladin and leader taking the backseat. The remainder of the team tried their best and hardest to not both either of the eldest humans, though, as Keith would mention later, someone came by every hour to Shiro's or his own room, tap on the door, and ask how their beloved Kerberos pilot was doing._

_She herself had waddled across the hall and stood before Shiro's door for a number of minuets before letting her knuckles rest it, the opening of it startling her enough for her to fall backwards. Keith's face, which was strangely calm considering his circumstances, twisted slightly as he offered her his hand, helping her up, the pair standing awkwardly in the Castle's night-cycle lights._

_"He's a lot better, still shaken up, but better." He gave her a slight, comforting smile, as awkward as it was, folding one arm across the other. The look made her feel almost embarrassed about traveling to the room so late and at the consistency she had; Pidge was sure she was the most frequent visitor, though she meant well._

_"Good, that's good." Sheepishly, she grimaced back and nodded a thank you, shoving her hands in her pockets, spinning around, and made for her own room. Though before she took a significant amount of steps, Keith's hand on her shoulder stopped her, Pidge turning and giving their new leader her full attention._

_"He's asked about you, you know." The statement made her eyes widen a bit- Keith was one for specifics when it came to what Shiro did or said. He'd mentioned that he'd asked about the team, their functionality, their location and how long it'd been, reciting the majority of the conversation to anyone who'd ask, though Shiro never spoke a name or posed any questions that were- well, Shiro-like. "He wants to see you, actually."_

_Pidge hiccupped, nearly toppling over as she did so. "What?"_

_Keith ignored the odd response, continuing on with whatever his trying-to-be-a-leader senses were urging him to speak out about (Though, the whole team knew the uncomfortable, strangled word that poured out of his mouth, though not as eloquently strung together as Shiro's, did help). "Listen, I.. I don't know what's going on between you two, but-"_

_"Wait, what?" There was something between them? There was a friendship, in her eyes, that she was extremely close to screwing up what with the annoying fuzzy feeling in her heart that she refused to call anything but that. Was there something more that she hadn't looked into? Sure, Pidge knew something happened while they were dancing, though it remained nameless, but her eyes and head couldn't see anything past the unnamed emotion._

_"But whatever it is, I'll stay out of it. God knows I don't want Shiro in my love life-"_

_**"What the fuck?"** Pidge hissed at the term; what did he mean? Did Keith think they were romantically involved? How was she supposed to process that statement like it was nothing, or at all for that matter? Did he not realize the endless questions he had just created without seeing the consequences? She would think about this for hours, scratch that, she would dissect the entirety of her and Shiro's relationship, the context of every word she had ever said to him, and just to be sure-_

_"-But he wants to see you. You ask a **lot** of questions." The majority of the conversation was now completely abandoned thanks to her investigating what the term 'love life' just meant to her, though his message came across crystal clear as soon as he muttered the six words._

_She swallowed thickly- she could worry about whatever the hell Keith meant later, if Shiro wanted to see her, she'd do her damned best to present herself as best she could. Of course it would still stress her out, make her worry why he asked just for her, and make her night sleepless via her anxiety, but this was bigger than what laid in her head._

_Pidge nodded, brushing hair out of her eyes and shoving her glasses further up on her nose as she offered, "Tomorrow morning?"_

_"Sure, after-"_

* * *

"Go ahead," Keith said as he exited the room, resting on her other side and gestured to it with his thumb sharply. Her now scattered thoughts were in a twisted, tangled mess, Keith's words taking seconds to register and a number more to mean anything to her. Pidge nodded, swallowing thickly as she side stepped around him, entering the shadowed room with the door shutting behind her with a hiss, her palms sweaty and her knees still shaky. Shiro's figure, which was swaddled in more blankets than she could distinguish between, was hardly visible in the dimmed fluorescent light until he looked her way. Though she could only see his eyes, his complexion brightened, the previous Black Paladin wiggling out of his manmade cocoon the best and as fast as he could manage.

She was still panicking- she had been since last night, fretting and stressing until she passed out from it- even pouring her heart out to Hunk over a bowl of food goo earlier that morning.

 _"I dunno, Pidge, it sounds like you're making a big deal out of this,"_ He'd said, smile soft as he offered what he could. _"He asked for you specifically, and you know Shiro, he only has good things to say about people. I'm positive that it'll all be fine, just listen what he has to say."_

"Hey," She greeted with a quiet voice, watching as he moved to sit up as she stepped as quietly as she could as she practically chanted Hunk's words repeatedly in her mind. He broke his arms free of the huddle, squirming onto a collection of pillows- damn, Keith was really worried, he practically made Shiro a mummy. "How are you feeling, Shiro?"

Shiro shoved a number of the sheets off of his chest as he shuffled to get comfortable, coughing into an elbow as he gave her a slight, pale smile as a greeting. She moved to grab a glass of water on his bedside table, adjusting the lighting as he answered, "Like I just escaped Galra prison. Not a feeling I'd like to have again," He gave a mangled sound, somewhere between a cough and a laugh, "Not a third time."

"That's where you went?" She inquired, kneeling next to the bed as she offered the glass.

"I-I don't remember much from it, truth be told." He shuffled to the side, patting the bed beside him as he moved a number of strands of hair out of his eyes. He took the water as she maneuvered next to him, tired eyes blinking away the blurriness of sleep as Shiro continued on. "I woke up in a different place than they held me last time, some sorta holding cell instead of an experimentation room, though I was glad for that, to be honest."

"You don't have to tell me this," Pidge offered, glancing up to him over a hunched shoulder, chewing the inside of her cheek as he turned the water up to his mouth. She watched as his eyebrow slowly rose up, a signal for her to elaborate. "I know how something like that could affect you, I-I don't want to bring up anything bad-."

"I've got more of a headache than I do anything else, honestly." Shiro's chuckle, although softer and weaker than she thought it ought to be, made the funny thickness in the air lightened and the weight in her stomach evaporate. "I'll be back in a few days if Coran doesn't keep sending down sleeping pills."

"You're lucky, he wanted you to stay in the cryopods longer, he might've forced you in."

"I'm sure he would've," Shiro coughed, shaking his head in an amused manner as he tapped his fingertips against the glass in his hands. She brought her knees up under her chin, resting her head as the ex-pilot moved his hair away from his face once again. Silence fell for a number of minuets, each not knowing what to say to the other, though Shiro, leader-like as he was and always would be, took the initiative and said something inspirational, though his words were shoved together in a manner that reminded her of trying to fit two puzzle pieces together- somewhat _un-Shiro-like_.

"Listen, Pidge, I-I mean, Katie, I-" He sighed, laughing exasperatedly before setting the cup down and trying again. "I know I was gone for a long time, and I know how it affected you- well, everyone, I mean, the whole team, but I know that things were different and awkward, and they were for me too. I missed Voltron, I missed the Lions, the team, but if I'm being honest," He inhaled deeply, as if the words were being shoved through his throat, "I missed you a _lot_."

_'Don't think about you feelings for him. Don't think about how you've probably got arrhythmia from your heart acting shitty because of that. Don't think about how he tried to smile at you even though he feels awful. Don't think about what Keith said or how he struggled to say that. '_

She hiccupped as she clamped her mouth shut as to prevent it from spewing a shit ton of stupid, awkward thanks or other phrases that would make her sound like an idiot. Shiro looked up at the noise, curious at the reaction as she shrunk back into the collar of her sweater, digging into the depths of her head in order for a proper response without her voice breaking or stuttering. "I-I missed you too, Takashi, it was awful without you here. We kept on fighting, the Lions were acting weird, and we were all terrified that you might be.. you know. I'm really, really happy you're back."

If Shiro was an animal, she decided he'd be a golden retriever. The thought was untimely, didn't fit into their conversation at all, but his head tilted to the side and he broke out into a smile that reminder her of all of the cute puppy videos she'd seen on Earth. The butterflies in her stomach multiplied, her mouth went dry as her crooked grin became the instant response, hiding her eyes in her bangs.

"Am I keeping you from something?" Shiro coughed, motioning to the door. "Patrols are usually about now, or did you guys change..?"

She shook her head, hands colliding with each other as they fell into her lap. "Keith gave me the morning off, so I'm all yours. I-I mean, we can talk for as long as you want to, that's what I mean by that. All we've been doing is looking for Lotor, anyway, so it's not a big deal."

"Lotor?" Shiro asked, frowning at the name. "Who's _he_?"

"Keith hasn't told you? He's Zarkon's son," She watched as his expression darkened, the same face he held in the middle of a firefight. It startled her to the point where she paused, waiting for him to make some sort of motion for her to continue, though he stayed frozen in his focused mindset, his frown deep, so she went on. "And he's been chasing us for weeks, acting more clever than normal generals or the normal Galra we encounter."

 _"I remember him_ ," He hissed, rubbing his eyes. Shiro made a move to tear himself free of the blankets, to get out of bed with the manner as to storm up into the deck before Pidge moved over him, tucking him back in. " _I don't know how, but I remember him_."

"You can tell us all about it later, Takashi, but now you need to rest." She pressed, placing her hand on his shoulder as the leader-look hardened. "If you're gonna be the head of Voltron and lead us into battle anytime soon, you need to rest, like, no Altean medicine induced rest, actual REM."

He sighed, running his hands through his hair as his head fell back on the pillows. "You really think so? At this point you'll win the war when I get back on my feet."

"You know what I think, Shiro?" Pidge swallowed the knot in her throat, tangling her hands together as she considered her next movement extremely carefully. She thought of the consequences, the awkward moments and experiences it would create if he took it the wrong way, but what Keith had commented the previous night and the unnamed, heart-to-heart moments over the course of the previous years, and the lack of his presence over a matter of months built up in her system. She leaned forward, pressing her hand against his chest and pressed her lips to the side of his cheek. "I think you're strong. I think you're _stupid_ strong, to where you think you're invincible, but you're not. I think you need to rest."

Pidge, standing up quickly and making a move for the door without viewing his reaction- she figured she could look and run- didn't know whether to be proud of herself or to go screech into a pillow. She waited for the automatic door to open before her, the hydraulics hissing as the daytime-mode light sloshed into the shadowed room, glancing back at their leader. His silver eyes were wide, mouth carved into a tiny smile with a bright, rosy flush blotched across his features, the outcome of her action still unclear to her. So, she grinned, spoke, and near sprinted out of the door.

"Also a haircut."

* * *

Something was off.

Keith had known Shiro for years- he'd learned all of his mannerisms, his habits, could predict his words and actions before they were said or done. During his Garrison years, Keith became fast friends with Shiro when he first attended the academy, the latter only a year older than the former, and he took up a silent goal to brother the fresh hell out of Keith. This included watching over his grades, enforcing rules in his dorm even though they didn't even live together, making sure he ate right and made it to class, and countless other big brotherly actions that both annoyed Keith out of his mind and made him feel extremely close and protective of the stupid, perfect mesh of a teenager. Though, Keith guessed that if anyone with a heart as kind as Shiro's had seen the closed-off, cold and emotional sort of kid that he was when they first met, anyone would have a similar reaction.

So when Shiro returned from his second disappearing act and his behavior was strange, Keith knew something happened to him during his absence.

Sure, he kept quiet and kept the thought to himself- he assumed Shiro's Post-Traumatic Stress was just highly aggravated, that the man he considered a brother was troubled from whatever the hellish Galra (He knew he was half of them but did it really count in this circumstance?) had done to him. When Shiro came back in action and was denied by the Black Lion, he took a position as the head of the Voltron Coalition, organizing their interplanetary meetings and arranging their routines, giving a break from the brunt of the messy, violent war, leaving Keith as the Black Paladin. Keith was glad to have the position and found Black a good partner, though they all knew how much Shiro missed being a Paladin, no matter how much he did or said. But when he started to command without letting the team have a say, when said team was treated like a unit, even though the actions only happened a few times, the un-Shiro-ness of them threw Keith for a loop.

Something wasn't off- something was wrong.

Through the next month or two of chasing after Lotor and desperately trying to get the upper hand from their enemies all while attempting to grow the coalition, he kept a tab on the previous Black Paladin the best he could between Mamora training and patrols. The half-Galra knew Shiro inside and out, and the longer time went on, the more he began to notice- not only did he become harsher at times, but Keith noticed him walking the halls more frequently from beating away sleep, moments where the man just looked lost, staring at nothing with a twisted expression, and at times, working so fiercely on so many Rebel projects for such long, non-stop periods that he and Pidge had to drag him out of the main deck, and the constant headache he carried around with him. The mixture of the two, out of place tendencies puzzled everyone involved- this wasn't just Shiro dealing with his inner demons, this was something else.  

Keith knew Shiro, and something was wrong with him.

* * *

Zarkon had offspring.

He had a child.

The fact, in all honesty, wouldn't have been that surprising ten thousand years ago- Honerva and Zarkon wished for one for the longest time, though they had higher priorities for the majority of their relationship. But now it made absolutely no sense- the pair were turned into undead, dark quintessianal beings with only a taste for war and hardly for one another, there was no time nor place for a son to be produced.

_Was there?_

Black was the last of them to come into contact with the humane, honorable first Black Paladin, though he had no evidence that there was any sign of the pair awaiting a child. Through the number of years that the Galra monarch maintained radio silence with his Voltron teammates, there was nothing to lead him onto the notion that they might be, anyway- Honerva was slowly losing herself due in part to the dark queintessince exposure over such a long amount of time, and Zarkon spent the entirety of his time and emotions on his wife and empire that the bond between him and his robotic partner was all but worn away. In the final minuets of the pair actually being alive, of the leader of the Galra holding his wife in his arms inside Black's cockpit, the only recognizable emotions that bled into the shared mindscape apologetic and fearful. By the time the Lion knew what was about to unfold, there was not a second to warn another soul before the damage was done.

They thought Zarkon never had a child.

The mistake would cost them.

 _"Why didn't we know?"_ Red asked for what seemed the thousandth time. _"Black was in the heart of the Empire for Decha-Phoebs, and there wasn't an announcement, not a strong emotion, not a hint of anything. Haggar probably doesn't remember who she even was, so how- when could this have happened?"_

 _"Alfor never announced the Princess, they kept it a secret until she was born. Some sort of political thing, I think,"_ Blue glanced up from her spot on the other side of Black's hangar, the now usual spot that the five felines began to assemble due to being both extremely frustrated over their current enemy's origins and the unspoken fact that they bathed in each other's company, all slightly clingy to the others after Black's offline period. _"Though I guess it doesn't explain the whole 'Zarkon feeling nothing' thing, and the fact that no offspring of theirs showed up to their funeral."_

 _"Can Pidge perhaps download some Galra transmissions and review them? Could some one go over ten thousand years of communications?"_ Yellow inquired, turning from laying on his back to on his stomach, paws tucked underneath him. _"Would it even be worth it?"_

 _"It doesn't matter how this.. Lotor, came or claims to be,"_ Black's baritone voice announced, tail shuffling to and fro, Green shuffling on his side with her head turned his way. _"He's standing in as the Empire's leader, and remains as enemy, regardless of his lineage. We are to treat him like every other Galra enemy in our Paladin's paths, though perhaps Keith might contact the Blade of Marmora and their chains of spies inside the Empire and see what is intentions are."_

 _"There's another issue at hand,"_ Green commented from his side, teeming with the unspoken topic's anxiety that it bore with it, a trait that they all seemed to carry. _"A bigger one than even Lotor."_

_"And that is?"_

_"You haven't reconnected with your previous Paladin."_ Red answered, her jaw set in the mechanical equivalent of a grimace with a stiffness. _"Shirogane has been healthy and active for a matter of numerous battles, yet though numerous attempts on his part, you two have done nothing together."_

He had to admit that the scarlet female was right; Voltron's first battle after Shiro was back in action, he'd tried and pleaded for his previous position, reaching out to his Lion but receiving no response. He knew that the remainder of the mechanical felines had question his actions for quite some time, though he'd never supplied an explanation to them. 

There was a good reason for his actions.

When Shiro returned, _something_ came with him.

There was something in the back of Shiro's head when Black first recognized him floating in the smack dab in the middle of space. At first, when he snatched him up and hit the Galra pod hit the ground, he couldn't quite place what it was- a presence in the back of his head, perhaps, but as time went on after the Champion was taken from the cryopod, the source of the unidentified object was unmistakable.

Honerva. More correctly, _Haggar_.

She'd prodded inside Shiro's head.

Not only was she watching them through his previous Paladin's mind, Shiro had grown wary of Black, untrusting since the man suspected he was the source of his own disappearance, while Keith was readily accepting his new partnership. The number of facts and the fact that Lotor has showed up out of absolutely no where had the head Lion holding the head Paladin at arm's reach.

 _"And how is that your concern?"_ He found himself asking, tone mistakenly bitter. He watched as Red's head jerked to the side, almost as if she was genuinely caught off guard by his comment. She aligned her posture and responded curtly.

_"I think it's all our concern, frankly, that you know something you don't quite feel inclined to share."_

_"Shiro does not fully trust me since his return,"_ He responded coolly, yellow eyes narrowing at the right arm of Voltron. _"He suspects I took part in his disappearance, and what remains is my own business. Until he puts his assumptions aside, Keith is the Black Paladin, even if he majority of his time if spent with the Blade."_

 _"But there will be a day when you're needed and Keith won't be here,"_ Green admitted shuffling her paws underneath her as she scooted closer. _"You can't close yourself off forever, Nebula, Shiro's meant to be your Paladin_."

Of course there would be a day. There was always a day when they weren't prepared, or when their enemy had the upper hand, or when they were caught in an uncomfortable position, or when, or when, or when. There would always be a time, always be a place, always be an occasion. But when an undead, corrupted Altean alchemist-turned-witch was peering through Shiro's head, Black had his reason to keep away from the ex-prisoner. Until the day Green talked about arrived, he would stick with the half-Galra being his Paladin.

The day came soon.

* * *

"What are you doing?"

_"Whatever I can."_

He, in all honesty, didn't expect it to work. He'd pushed the thought away ever since his first attempt at reconnecting with the Black Lion, fully accepting his new role and Keith's position as the new Black Paladin. It wasn't too bad in all honesty- he planned patrols and scouting missions, met up with the leaders of joining planets and arranged small scale invasions and battles. He was Voltron's poster boy, used in their screenings and advertisements and the rallies, the public face on display in the limelight while the team 's dirty work hid in the background.

_But he missed being a Paladin._

He missed the bond with Black, missed the effortless, comforting shared Paladin link. He missed the methodical routines, missed feeling like he was actually making a difference by taking down Galra ships and saving countless lives as being a Paladin, missed being able to feel like he could actually doing something. He missed being able to fly something, whether it be Black or dropships or speeders or anything, the reason he joined the Garrison years ago, the dream of exploring space and piloting now useless as he was now stuck to the ground. The whole situation was rather aggravating, though he tried his best to keep a level head. Patience yields focus, after all.

He'd accepted Keith training with the Blade of Marmora, though perhaps it was a mistake, in this instance- the team was pinned down without a Black Paladin to lead them or to form Voltron. He couldn't stand around and do nothing; he was tired of sitting on the sideline, tired of being the poster boy.

_He would try again._

Sliding the flight suit and Paladin armor over himself as fast as he could, Shiro falling into the steps he had taken up a matter of months ago, every time his foot slapped against the floor a memory of a previous battle flashing over his eyes. The automatic door to Black's hangar sliding open, Shiro swallowed before exhaling loudly, pressing his together as he took a matter of steps forward.

He didn't expect it to work, but it would have to.

Black stared down at him, empty, inactivated eyes hollowly awaiting for a pilot. He watched as the machine slowly bent down, jaw opening and steps unfolding which led him into the cockpit, Shiro dropping into the seat, biting his lip as it slid forward into position. The dull lavender glow was missing- still no results.

 _"I take out one but two more replace it!"_ Lance's voice rang through the helmet, panicked tone chipping away at the quiet and focused demeanor of his leader. He let out a shaky breath, curling his fists around the controls as he reached out to the head of Voltron, receiving nothing in response.

 _"The supply ship is almost captured, can anyone get to it?"_ His grip and jaw tightened, Shiro pressing his eyes shut as to shove away the panicked pleas for help- did they know he was trying his damned hardest? The adrenaline running through his veins and the anxiety crawling across the front of his mind tore away at the remainder of his resolve, limbs jittery and throat dry. 

_"I'm trying!"_

_"Where are they all coming from?"_

_"Watch out behind you!"_ Shiro hissed, slamming his hands down on the levers- Black knew he was trying, knew how desperate he was to help his team, and did nothing. _What the hell did the machine even want?_ He'd fought for the partnership countless times, fighting off Zarkon countless times by himself, even doing it in the Black Lion's head. He'd valued their bond, valued every second the pair spent together, fighting or talking or even just sharing a connective head.

_"Do the rebel ships have a shot?"_

_"I have a visual on them, but they're dead in the water!"_ Did he know that this was bigger than either of them, that the rebel medical ships were desperately needed for the mass amounts of injuries that the Coalition's citizens sustained, know that he other Lions and other Paladins were in danger? This was bigger than whatever reason Black had for hating him!

His throat closed up, panic setting in as the sounds of both alarms and ammunitions echoed in his ears. This situation had been in nightmares, had been in his mangled worst fears- this shouldn't be happening, it couldn't be real, it should just be a nightmare, just like all the rest. But no, instead of the blurry vision, shadow-filled mayhem they regularly included, reality was far worse- screaming, blaster fire, Shiro reaching out for any kind of connection with what used to be his Lion but receiving empty, lackluster emotions from his previous partner. But there was just one, singular thing that reality had in common with his night terrors.

Shiro was _useless._

_'Please let this work, please, I can't let them get hurt, I promised I'd keep them safe!'_

_"We can't do this without Voltron!"_

_"Where is Keith?"_

_"Please,"_ He begged, hunched over in the seat, with his eyes still shut, reaching out for something, _anything_ the lead Lion would say to him. Shiro shoved away the screams, shoved away the frustration and all of the emotions that clouded his mind and reached further, griping the controls tighter. The cockpit remained quiet, dark, the only noise being the screams of his teammates and of those in the rebel medical supply ships, still screeching through the comm link. _"People's lives are at stake! You trusted me once, trust me again!"_

Silence. Then a noise. Then a nudge.

A nudge from the Black Lion.

_"Shiro?"_

The human inhaled sharply- the links, the headspaces, the cluttered emotions of the remaining Paladins and Lions, the panic and the pain all came back at once. He gripped his head under his helmet as it clattered to the ground, inner anxiety near doubling as his teammate's poured into his, heart hammering in his chest. The Lion, _his_ Lion's, lights flickered on, a lavender glow pouring into the cockpit as the yellow-gold glow of his eyes illuminating the Castle platform underneath the pair. By the time Shiro's head lessened its ache and he located his helmet, Black had stood, release an ear-piercing roar, and was awaiting direction from its pilot- _from him._

"Black?" He asked, hands limp in his lap as his silver eyes searched the dashboards and the visor as if they'd supply his explanation. "What?"

 _"I trust you, Shiro,"_ His partner answered, a shake running through his mechanical frame as he prepared to take off. The pressure of the reconnected mindspace leaked some sort of pride and reluctance, though the latter was quickly forgotten as he straightened up, pressing his back against the seat as schematics and routes to the other's location began to run across the screen, the eagerness in the pairs limbs and the calling across the comms somehow oddly comforting. _"And more importantly, you trust me. Welcome back, Black Paladin."_

Shiro let a grin etch across his face, tightening his grip as he drove the controls forward, flying the pair out of the Castle of Lions.

His Lion was right-the Black Paladin had returned.


	8. Fate- An Abusive Mistress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fate beat them until their back broke, knees went weak and until they were sobbing, sniveling puddles of sorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, you all should be rather happy when I say that this will be the last angsty chapter for a while! Since Seasons 6-8 apparently are gutting us, I'll keep this lighter-toned to deal with my own case of Voltron-induced depression. And as For Shiro being canonically queer, I'll have him be bisexual- hey, we match!- and don't worry, Adam will be dealt with in a way that neither butchers his character or makes the plot decision look ill-fated. I'll also be rewriting the previous chapters as my style has changed over this year of writing this, but for now, enjoy this chapter!

"This... this _can't_ be right."

Pidge squirmed in her seat, trying to get a better look at the planet her Lion had piloted her passenger to. It was barren, deserted, all of the scanners showing that nothing lived on the surface, that nothing could even if it tried, what with toxic air, no water and no vegetation. The sky was a sickly green, the kind that reminded her of hospital lobbies, illuminated with an off-white, pale glow from the sun it was attempting to pilot itself towards leaving it with what must be temperatures colder than on Earth- or as she found some decide to call it, Terra- with her scanners alarmingly and unsettlingly silent for any life forms.

And her brother was supposed to be down there.

She chewed the side of her cheek, pressing her thin fingers against her screens, rerunning and reprogramming the calculations as they neared the celestial object, which, in itself, appeared to be slowly tearing itself apart as the nearby sun drug it close to it. The atmosphere was inconsistent and gravity even more so, her dashboards strongly advising from her journeying down to its surface. She rarely took their advice these days- it was much easier and almost always required not to.

"This place," She frowned, hands retreating to the controls and tapping against the handles as the image of the planet zoomed in. She looked back at the transponder, eyebrows narrowing down as its orange blink began to steadily increase, the image representing herself moving along without fail, the device still in perfect condition. "It's completely destroyed, but it says he's here."

 _"Perhaps there is more to this world than meets the eye, Bird."_ Green spoke softly, treading lightly on the topic. Since the Black Paladin's recent disappearance, Pidge had been more determined than ever to find her missing family members, and now that he'd returned she'd spent the majority of her time searching for the two. After just shy of an entire day of trailing after clues to find Matt, which included beating the shit out of a weapons dealer, defending a Rebel base and having someone, a kind woman named Te-osh, die in her arms, Pidge was tired, melancholy, and nervous, all bleeding into her tied mind with Green, limbs and eyes heavy.

The Lion drew the pair closer to the surface, avoiding the massive chunks of upturned solidified earth, diving over uneven shelves and jagged cliffs while Pidge drew her shoulders together, hunching over in the seat as she awaited any sign to prove to the pair that the planet was not indeed deserted or abandoned. The scanner startled her out of her thoughts after a few minuets, the dash's vision zooming in on a large metallic structure that they were quickly nearing. Her heart thundered in her ears, throat dry as she jolted the controls- was that a base, a weapon guarding a base, an outpost?

"Set us down there- please, Green."

 _"Katie,"_ Green's voice was gentle as paws collided with a metal slab beneath them, Pidge escaping the seat as it slid back with a hiss, transponder pressed against her chest plate as she traveled down the escape ramp. _"Be careful, please, I don't have the best of feelings about this."_

The Green Paladin maneuvered between her Lion's massive fangs as she stepped down onto the platform, . Before Pidge Holt stood two parallel walls of metal slabs, carvings of numerous aliens armed to the teeth pressing against both with their fists and knives and blasters raised, a plaque beneath written in a dialect she had not yet mastered. Tapping the side of her helmet with a pair of fingers, the translator clicked online, pulse akin to the methodic thumping of her Lion's engines in her ears.

 _"In honor of the 127,098 brave warriors that stood against tyranny."_ The electronic tone announced, Pidge's honey gaze shifting into a glare. A battlefield, then- perhaps there was a Rebel base her, maybe it was recently over taken again by the Rebellion, or maybe her brother was being held hostage. She frowned deeply, ready to leap back in Green and take back her older sibling from whatever Galran bastards had dared to take him-

_"The quest for freedom is won by sacrifice."_

_'What?'_

No.

_'It's not possible. It said Matt was here, that meant he was alive. '_

That's how it was supposed to work.

He wasn't supposed to be dead. Matthew Alexander Holt wasn't supposed to be dead. He was supposed to be alive, she was supposed to bring him back to the Castle, he was going to help them win the war, they were going to go home together.

 _"No,"_ Her eyes widened and her grip around the transponder unbreakable, she inhaled sharply, dashing around the plaque, tripping as she made a mad run behind the monument for the destroyed base- the Galra outpost, whatever the hell it was supposed to be- Matt was alive, the carving was lying, it couldn't be true. That was her big brother, someone she'd known all her life, who'd stayed up late with her when she was little and scarred of monsters, who'd fought her with plastic lightsabers instead of comments, who'd take her onto the roof and taught her every constellation she could see from their planet. He'd promised he'd come back when he left Kerberos, and Matt always kept his promises- he couldn't break this one. Her brother had always been there for her, and even when he disappeared she still clung onto his assurance of his return. Even when all else burned down around her, when Shiro disappeared and Lotor hunted after them, there was still hope of finding him. _'When all else failed, there is family'_ was a Holt family ideal- but now it was a useless moral in terms of blood, as it had been spilled. _"No, please no!"_

She slowed to a stop on the edge of a cliff, catching herself before she toppled over the edge. Laid before Pidge, a sea of black markers stood tall in even rows with a consistent space between them, a red label placed in the middle of each, the mass structures standing tall though those who now laid beneath them did not. The sickly green sunlight spilled through the gaps between the rubble, filling the area with a disgusting, deathly, pale feeling- once again reminding her of a hospital room.

It was a series of graves.

"Oh, no," Pidge's gruff voice whispered, eyes stinging and heart beating against her cranium like it was trying to escape her body. Using her jetpack that was strapped to her armor, she tumbled down the cliff, landing awkwardly and falling onto her face. With a growl that was a cross between a grunt and a whine, she shoved her body up, snatching the glowing orange screen and watching as it continued to blink faster and faster. The Paladin broke out into a sprint, golden gaze glued onto the device in place of her surroundings- nothing else mattered besides finding her brother.

Nothing.

Her feet traveled faster than they ever had before, her legs screeching for her to stop or slow down, though she gave them no notice as she navigated through the hundreds of thousands of markers of souls that had been lost. Each footstep was louder than even the thunder overhead, immensely more important was each led her a step closer to her sibling. The screen's orange flashed red, her feet caving inward with each step as if she were on the verge of collapsing. Memories she once held close to her heart were now painful, their sting similar to that of a narrowly missed blade or blaster fire.

_"Listen, Piiiiidge-" She was five, she had been dubbed with a long sticking nickname she despised as she reached for the teddy bear that he held tight to his chest as he faced away from her, insisting that the stuffed toy was in fact his and not her own. She grabbed the back of his sweater and tugged the bear out of his hands, a chase then ensuing through the house with the sounds of bare feet slapping and poorly concealed giggling alerting their parents to the situation._

_"Happy Birthday, Pidge." She was seven, he had shoved a poorly wrapped package into her arms with an anxious grin across his face as he wriggled beside her. She'd then jumped up, screaming and giggling and hugging him tight in celebration of her first chemistry set. She nearly broke half of the thing as she launched herself at him, the pair rolling around until they broke a pair of their mother's vases, establishing another Holt Family Rule- hugging is a weapon not allowed inside three rooms of the house._

_"Listen, we all know that Star Trek is better than Star Wars and you can fight me on this." She was twelve, he was gesturing with the remote as she hoarded the popcorn bowl in her lap. She threw half of the bowl's contents over onto him, standing up on the couch as giving a full rebuttal speech that ended with the two in an all too familiar lightsaber battle. The winner was left undecided, and the pair opted for eating the remaining popcorn, attempting to catch the snack in their mouths multiple times after throwing it, both far too clumsy and uncoordinated to complete the action._

_"I'll be back, Pidge, I promise." She was fifteen, her arms around him and her face buried in his chest as he hugged her for the last time for a number of years. His uniform bent her nose and her tears made dark spots n his jacket, but neither minded as he set his chin on her head. She was then forced to let go, her brother's blubbery smile making her throat tighten up as she was forced to step away, unaware that she would be running to his grave on an alien planet in less than three years._

_'Matt, you can't be dead, you can't be, Matt, Matt please-'_

The beeping stopped, the transponder went dark as she reached his location. As she scrambled to a halt, hoping, pleading, begging that when she looked up, her brother would be there, smiling down at her with the usual warmth in his eyes, almost waiting for her nickname to be used. It had been too long, she'd spent three years without the man, just a childish fifteen year old when he ascended to the stars- she was seventeen, her body battered and bruised and war torn, and nothing would make her happier than seeing Matthew. He was alive, after all, _wasn't he?_

She was wrong, and all was silent.

A marker.

A single, lonely, marker, identical to all the other save for the alien scrawling writing on the glowing red bar spelling his name, birthdate, and time of death. Her helmet's dash blinked at the message and rearranged the writing to spell out his name and the pair of dates in electronic writing, printed plainly as if to rub it in her face that there was no possible misidentification of her sibling. It was marked as if he wasn't Matt Holt, as if he wasn't her blood, as if he wasn't the best brother in the entire multiverse.

_As if he was just another foot soldier, destined to die._

Knees gave out, breath shallow, heartbeat dropping from working overtime to dangerously slow: Those were the medical reports that dashed across her screen as her legs became useless and sound became nonexistent as she starred blankly at the figure ahead of her, mind suddenly abandoning logic- it had betrayed her anyway- and refusing to believe what her eyes told her brain. _"I'll be back, Pidge, I promise,"_ The memory repeated like some sort of sick, self inflicted injury, her throat thick as the device crashed limp onto the ground, lightening flashing overhead as she crashed over, palms hitting the mud below with a thud.

Matt promised. Matthew Holt always kept his promises, _no matter what._

It wasn't possible. It just wasn't.

He was supposed to be alive. _They were going to go home together._

_"Matthew Holt. 0-0-1-0-0-5-"_

Pidge didn't hear the translator. By the time sound came back to her ears the only noise she could hear was her own, shuddering, pathetic, broken sobbing and the sound of her tears hitting her helmet's screen. She bent over, digging her fingers into the dirt as she shook, beating on the underfoot because it wasn't fair. _It just wasn't fair._

 _"I'm so sorry,"_ She choked, eyes pressed shut and teeth together as she pressed herself to the ground, rain pit-pattering against her armor and flight suit, lungs wheezing what air she would allow in and out, the closest thing to hyperventilating without it being so. Pidge should've been there- she was a Paladin of Voltron, they fought for the innocent, so why weren't they there? She should've been here, should've protected all of the lost lives around her, should've showed up and found and protected Matt. _"I was too late!"_

She slammed her fist against the ground, hissing as she forced air back into her chest while thunder roared and rain and tears combined until she was a shivering, shaking, quivering mess, flat against the earth and keeping as close as she could to her brother's grave. Even Green's presence, something akin to a pair of arms around her torso, couldn't do a thing for her pain. She'd had stab and blaster wounds less painful, less devastating than this.

She shrieked.

It was a loud, drawn out, painful noise that gave everything she had- every ounce of released anxiety and fear, every bit of bottled anger and sadness and frustration and longing shoved out of her body, though it would never really go away. Nothing this big ever would- it would leave a scar- a gaping hole so deep she couldn't ever sew it up, no matter how hard she would try. It left her empty, sobbing on the muddy ground while she trembled, her Lion partner the only thing that tethered her to any emotional attachment- the only thing that kept her from losing herself in the agony.

Her brother was dead. He broke his promise.

"No-no!"

* * *

 

What she couldn't know is that, even though she was half a universe away from them, the other Paladins felt her loss. No exaggeration, no metaphors, they felt and experienced just how much pain their Green Paladin was in due to the psychic link between them- an overwhelming, afflictive, hollowing sort of pain.

Lance and Hunk had only just entered the main deck, armor clad and helmets kept at their hips', where Shiro and the two Alteans stood surrounded by a sea of transparent screens, the group all ready to open their mouths and gush out data over their findings or reports or thoughts. The screens vanished and the helmets were sat down as they huddled together, mouths opening all at once and they prepared for a debriefing.

To say 'it hurt' was an understatement. It was a searing, aching, sharp pain that affected them as of someone had held a branding iron to their chests and skulls, a longing and a loss and a silent scream that died in their throats. It brought them to their knees and their fists to their chests, leaving Coran to look on and question and try what he could to ease the pain that came out of no where.

But then the wave of agony left as soon as it came, a dull ache the only evidence that it was ever there. While they released their grips of hair and chest plates, maneuvering to the deck's steps to both recover and investigated what hell just happened to the four, Coran watched as they gave each other a worried glance. Such was a look of confusion and concern, its origins worrying, unsettling. Coran demanded answers, blue eyes narrowing at each and every one of them until they supplied what he needed.

"It was through the Paladin Bond," Allura answered, gripping onto his shoulder as he kneeled beside her. "Something happened to Pidge."

* * *

Shiro was wrong.

Now, he wasn't actually wrong- he was lied to.

He wasn't the Black Paladin.

At least the Shiro that had recently returned from Galra captivity was not, but then again, he wasn't Shiro- he was a fake, an imposter.

A clone of the original, who was now dead.

The first successful out of Haggar's new line of Shirogane minions that could be under her influence any time she'd decided it was desired or required. Operation Kuron, it was dubbed, giving the enemy access to their beloved 'Champion' at any time, though few knew of the procedure according to the shoved away memories of the copy.

The real, original Takashi Shirogane was inside Black's consciousness.

He hadn't meant to shove him inside his own AI- it was a side effect of Haggar's last attack on Voltron in Zarkon's last battle, a side effect- more accurately a product- of her tampered Altean magic. A magic-infused AI and a human mind merged together was one thing, but a human mind lingering inside said AI was, well, something entirely different; something that no Lion and no Altean knew anything about.

He hadn't known for months. By the time he did, Keith was the Black Paladin, the clone returned and reabsorbed into the team and finding Lotor and expanding the coalition their main priorities. No one had to worry about Shiro, anyway, he was already back in their eyes, safe and sound and commanding the team. Everything was like it was supposed to be, right?

But it wasn't.

The Lion had no reason to believe his former partner was stuck there; he had nothing currently connecting Black to the man with the metal arm, Keith was steadily becoming a competent leader, and there was no voice in his head. Nothing led him to believe otherwise, and so he looked no further into it. Black's job was done, and though he missed the super soldier's company, he would make due with the half-Galra that kept him plenty entertained (Though he was much more brash and reckless than Shiro or Zarkon, he was much more.. experienced in the self sacrificing department. Keith wasn't quite as leader-like either, but Red's past Paladin had several characteristics that would carve him into a great one in years to come.).

Then came the voice, a noise that would throw off thousands of years of wisdom and experience, leaving both divisions of the Voltron team in an uncomfortable, unrecognizable situation that even the Altean Alchemy secrets Alfor had put into their heads when he created them couldn't help with. Little did the machine know that it would last over one of the Earthling's 'years' and include a series of road bumps to his and Green's plan, as well and the Lion becoming well acquainted with the phrase 'Kuron'.

Funny how a sound could do so much.

_"Black?"_

The voice retained the identical slight echo and edge it did whenever he'd previously forced Shiro in his head, though the better question was why he could hear it. The voice hadn't been audible for a series of months, what with his disappearance, new position, and the broken link between the two. To say he was startled was an understatement; the largest Lion leapt up, tail thrashing around as searched for the man with the metal arm, though the only clue to his location was the wave of ache identical to, as hinted before, when he was fighting Zarkon's connection to himself inside his head. The man wasn't anywhere near him; the scan he used showed that Shiro was, or at least was supposed to be, busy in the main deck, listening to a debriefing.

**_'Shiro? Where-'_ **

_"Where am I, Black?"_ Shiro sounded panicked, confused, not much different from when his night terrors and gladiatorial memories got the better of him- though he went to Pidge for these sorts of things, and even that now tended to happen less. With a final glance at his surroundings and a repeat of his previous scan, the voice continued on, though logically it shouldn't have. _"Am I.. I'm inside your head again?"_

* * *

 

Shiro tied his fingers together in his hair, eyes roaming in the endless violet abyss that trapped him in. He felt like he'd been hit hard in the back of the head, vision distorted as he stumbled to regain both his balance and clear eyesight. The bitter taste of iron in his throat the pilot recognized as blood and the ache in his head lead him to believe he'd recently been attacked- or, according to the last thing he remembered, took place in an attack.

The fight with Zarkon.

Shiro hissed; memory spotty, as it often tended to be, the last moments before he was in his current position were blotched crudely together akin to a torn quilt. He knew Voltron was formed, knew that Allura had been shot with a reflection of the Castle's beam, and knew that the quintessence had been drained out of the ten Voltron fighters, yet that was all. His hands dropped down from his hair, traveling to his mouth- he'd gotten a split lip and his nose should've been bleeding, the arrange of bruises that littered his torso and limbs missing.

How long had he been out?

"Am I actually in a healing pod or something? This's gotta be a-a dream, right?"

**_Oh. No. Not. Right. Sorry. Dead. Sorry. Clone. Fake._ **

The words came and went almost faster than he could process them, whipping around Shiro as if they were whispers he was not meant to hear. The quickness of the phrases accompanied by a streak of light in the darkness of the starlit sky above led him to a conclusion; he'd seen all of the high school biology documentaries that showed how synapses worked, and knew how fast a thought could be. So he was inside Black's head- but somehow deeper lodged into it. If he could hear what his partner was thinking, then he must've been in his location for a considerable amount of time.

So.. _'dead'_?

"What do you mean _'dead'_?" He scowled, rejecting the notion flashing around for some sort of visible explanation yet receiving none. " _I'm not dead_."

**_Dead. Clone. How. Magic. Haggar. Clone. Dead. Sorry._ **

The voice came again, this time deeper, forcefully, more concerned. The Paladin shook his head, maneuvering backward as he tangled his fingers in his white hair once again. The memories of the fight came back full force, flooding his head fully of a series of painful images- the quintessence being suck out of him, receiving a number of blows to the head and chest- this couldn't be, this shouldn't be possible. He should be waking up in a healing pod, should be seeing his teams faces through the plexiglass-like material. _" **Shiro,** **you need to calm do-"**_

"What do you mean, Black?" Shiro demanded, balling his gloved fists, still literally looking for an explanation. The darkened sky began to blotch black, the twinkling stars dying out until they vanished, leaving him in a midnight abyss that slowly crept unto a landscape that was near pitch black. Shiro's throat went dry, his flight-or-fight urges kicking in as his Galran fist ignited. "What do you mean _'dead'_? _"Clone'_? _What the hell, Black_?"

**_Dead. Dead. Clone. Clone. Dead. Another. Again. Dead._ **

_"I'm-I'm sorry, Shiro."_ The voice lost its echo, lost its edge it normally retained. There was none of the determined leader qualities- no strength, no power, only his partner apologizing for what was out of both of their control. It was a hopeless, mournful sentence- the Lion had already lost one Paladin thanks to dark quintessence to have them only return corrupted, and history decided to twist the knife and repeat itself, the Lion glad that Keith was sparred from the tormenting cycle.

Nebula had failed his partner once again.

 _"I'm not-not-"_ Shiro shook his head violently, despising the unnatural echo; he wasn't dead. He wasn't dead! There was so much he hadn't done, so much that needed to be done.

The war had just begun. There would be so much more bloodshed, so many more losses and defeats and growth- he had to propel his team through it all, had to protect them with more ferocity than he would even his own blood. He'd signed up for the military branch of the Garrison, he knew how it worked- you lived with them, fought with them, ate, slept, cried, bled with them until a unit becomes no longer a series of people but divided sections of a person; that aspect had been proven painfully true on a number of occasions that Shiro couldn't number, his back pressing against someone else's more often than a wall. This galactic civil war was older than any of them, had spilled every color and type of blood- so much so that it could drown out the stars. There was too much at stake, too much on his shoulders for him to simply be dead. He had to get back to his team.

**_Sorry. Dead. War. Sorry._ **

They hadn't saved the Holts. They hadn't stopped the Empire. They hadn't defended Earth. They had yet to liberate trillions of lives, yet to establish freedom to the countless, yet to be a part of a new, saved universe. There was so much to be done that had not yet been achieved, and he would never be a part of it.

Shiro would never see Allura and Coran meet other Earthlings, would never see them attempt to rebuild their civilization or create a new home. He would never see Hunk spread his gentle kindness to all those even outside his reach or just how strong the gentle giant would come to be. Never would Shiro see the potential leader he knew Lance could be nor his expression when he finally returned to their shared planet of origin, nor would Keith see his brother again, never see just how strong of a Black Paladin and universal leader the hybrid could become, even better than himself. He would never-

Oh, God.

 **Pidge**.

_Thud._

There went his knees, his back weakening not a fraction of tick later. His hands were the only thing that caught him, and even then, there was so much adrenaline pumping though his veins that his joints threatened to collapse, the warrior shaking with shock. The tears that bubbled from his eyes never registered with him, only the fact that he was dead, and he would never see his family again, never see Pidge and her golden gaze.

God damn it.

_God damn it all!_

He slammed his fist against the ground underneath him, hissing as his teeth sank into his lip. Shiro, for truly the first time, was drained completely of any and all existing hope his system once contained; he was dead, killed in action, the Kerberos Pilot finally tripping with his dance with death. There was no Galra science to drag him back to life, nor was there any Altean cryopod or magic that could return him to his team- his family.

**_Sorry. Dead. Clone. Shirogane._ **

There was nothing that could bring him to Katie, no matter what he wished.

Another fist slammed down, blood on his tongue while the deceased Black Paladin sucked in more air, though he supposed he didn't need it. _'No. No, no, please. God, anyone, no! I have to get back, I have to protect her, I promised-!"_

His throat thick, Shiro choked on his own tears, teeth bared together as his eyes snapped open to the glimmering indigo underfoot. This seemed like a sick, disgusting nightmare- a differentiation from the regular scenes and settings of his vivid panic attacks, equally sickening nonetheless. Always someone he couldn't protect, always the Galra winning, always the man being worthless, never strong enough to stop it all.

That's what he was, after all: _worthless and weak._

**_"AHHHHHHHH!"_ **

Shiro lurched over, collapsing into a shivering, sniveling, disaster of a man, palms pressed tightly to his eyes, knees against his chest whilst the deceased Black Paladin wept so harshly it was mute. The noise that had escaped his mouth had left his throat and lungs raw, though it wasn't discernable who's voice it belonged to; the pair's connection was strong, painfully strong- every apologetic inch of Black coursed through Shiro, every mournful, distressing inch of the Earthling sewed together to his Lion in a midnight-hued, mangled mess of despair. Metallic and flesh fingers left divots in the side of his temples, the Earthling pleading for any other emotion besides that of fear and agony until his breaths became hiccups which smoothed into silence once more. He knew not how long he laid there, dreading his fate and the eternity he was now bound to suffer through, clutching his head in his hands, wishing for an end.

He didn't want this. He wanted to be on Earth with his team, wanted the universal war to be over, wanted to be someplace where he was no longer cradled by suffering and torture.

Shiro was tired of fighting. Shiro was exhausted of having to struggle to make ends meet.

He wanted her.

Was this how it was going to be? Haunted for the rest of time by her image, her memory? Possessed by a searing, burning pair of glowing auburn eyes, a sharp mind, and a gentle smile, the once Black Paladin would now be destined to leave behind the soul he trusted most, the soul he was closest to, the soul he loved.

All without even saying goodbye.

Fate wasn't a cruel mistress, he decided, she was an abusive one.

_"Pilot, you're not wrong."_

A firm hand on the cuff of his armor brought his attention out of the void he slowly sunk into, his hands breaking from his eye sockets, irises traveling to whatever had grabbed him from above. There, figure shuttering and remaining unfocused in the midnight abyss, his form almost alike a transmission far out of range, stood his partner- the Black Lion. Black's image was fuzzy and uncertain like a underdeveloped polaroid, though as the Paladin shifted to face his friend, certain prominent details stood out to the man: a series long claw marks over his face, Galran armor reminiscent to that he wore to the Gala tattered and dented, war-torn ice eyes barring down into his own with a recognizable kindness he'd kept close over the course of nearly three years.

"Black?" Shiro rubbed his red-rimmed eyes, sniffling loudly.

**Shirogane. Clone. Dead. Alive.**

The blurry figure knelt down beside the human, the adorned cloak spilling onto the reflective underfoot and merging together with it. The suffocating dark began to fade, and as the humanized- Altean-ized?- Lion reached his hand out and made a move to touch the armored shoulder of the much younger man, stars blinking back into existence. The moment gloved fingertips pressed against the Altean plating, a number of dark waves overcame his vision, and Shiro then, in the last moment of Black's eyes being visible to him, assumed the Lion had knocked him out.

But if he was supposed to be knocked out, why could he hear himself talking?

* * *

 

_"... then we should move docking pods 32-A through..."_

The darkened waves washed over him again, Shiro groaned; whatever his partner did, it left his head with a harsh, dull ache, the sensation of being whacked in the back of his head returning. He shifted, raising his manufactured hand to grip his temples-

But he couldn't move.

_".. I completely understand. Do you think..."_

Instead, as light crept into his eyes, a sensation of fingertips on a belt buckle, bright, fluorescent lights beaming down upon his skin, and a number of voices around him sunk into his consciousness, he frowned, attempting to move a number of more times, still nothing happening. The black waves tripping to a halt, he peeled his eyes open, his own voice still carrying on.

_"... of course. Thank you, Kolivan."_

Shiro- or whoever's head he was flung into- stood before a holoscreens that floated taller than he, the leader of the Blade of Marmora and, oddly, Keith, the man adorning the society's garb, expression hardened and scowl thick. Out of his peripheral, the Castle's conference room curved around him, unfocused outlines of Lance and Hunk's armor on either side of himself, helmets tucked at their hips while they looked onward. The transmission cut short, the screen flashing before drawing in on itself and disappearing. Shiro- or whoever's head he was crammed into- turned, folding his arms as he drew away from the screen, head turning slowly toward what he assumed were his teammates.

 _"Hopefully Keith won't be gone to often,"_ Shiro's voice spoke. the real version of the man choked, Lance and the Princess entering his field of vision with concerned, professional frowns creasing lines down their faces, Allura, strangely enough adorned in a pink tinted set of the Paladin's uniform. Both choices of wardrobe of Keith and the female alien puzzled him-how long had he been out of it? Words dying in his throat like embers and his every move controlled by another being like a marionette, every reach to his friends slapped away, denied at every try. _"Being the Black Paladin still takes a lot of focus, and his seems to be centered with the Blade."_

 _'That's not me,'_ He insisted, to whether it was Black or his fellow soldiers to whom he was referring to he knew not- if anyone could hear and believe him, it would be good enough for the pilot. _'He's using my voice, my body, something- if I'm dead, then he's not me!'_

 _"Yeah, hopefully,"_ Lance responded to the fake, indigo eyes glancing nervously between his before the Blue Paladin turned to the Princess, the pair journeying out of the room side by side, chatting as the door closed after them with a hiss. Turning to those remaining inside the room, his head cocked to the side at Hunk and Coran behind him, both pairs of eyes focused on him.

 _"Any luck with the station's defenses on the Balmera?"_ His head quirked to the side, look polite as metal and flesh hands situated back on his belt. _"It's been difficult just to get over there these days with how far away it is."_

Hunk's bandana spilled over his shoulder as he nodded, toothy grin wide and dark eyes warm. Memories- memories that belonged not to himself, but this fake- played out like a cassette tape in less than a second, something about Shay viewing the Castle, hugging the crew, a number of her people sitting at a table with the Olkari and the organic members of Voltron, hashing something out. _"We've got some Olkari ambassadors setting up the final base shields, they've made them in a way where it won't hurt the Balmera itself. All good,"_ He finished with a thumbs up.

The engineers shuffled out of the Champion's way with calm and confident glances, Coran's hand resting on hi shoulder for a split second like the older man now tended to do with the Paladins. His gaze followed them though he continued forward, Shiro still puzzled as to what exactly was taking place. Any silent- what, were they thoughts? Deafened noises?- words directed to his Lion partner remained unanswered as the fake's eyes swiveled to-to-

_"I can feel your eyes on the back of my head, Shiro. Gotta question you need answered?"_

The butterflies crawling up from his stomach shouldn't have belonged to the copy. The metallic hand shouldn't have rested on the back of his neck like he knew was a habit of his, his steps shouldn't have caved inward before he arrived at her chair, his smile shouldn't have widened. It was disgusting that any of those actions were performed- he didn't know who the fresh hell this, this clone think he was, but Shiro knew not his intentions and assumed the worst.

 _'No, no,'_ His hands rested on the curves of her shoulders as she tilted her head upward to face him, the clone's mind brightening but his own darkening. Shiro- if he was alive- would've been shaking, his fists pulsing and his pulse erratic; but he wasn't, and 'Shiro' kept his heartbeat at the awkward, fluttery rhythm and a etched smile. If he could've moved, he would've shoved himself away, would've destroyed the fake along with any other copy of himself he assumed the Galra had manufactured. ' _Get away from her, get the hell away from her!'_

 _"Any breakthroughs on strengthening the Castle's Particle Barrier?"_ His eyes drifted across the lines of coding jargon, unable to understand a word of it while the Green Paladin Pidge typed away without a second between her fingers hitting the digital keys.

 _"None so far, but me and Hunk are making some progress between patrols."_ Her eyes flashed up to his for hardly a moment, yet the same excited glow in her eyes was unmistakable. _"We've all been so busy, we hardly have any time to work on it, but maybe I could get Matt to help- he did migrate half his stuff into my lab, after all."_

 _'Matt's alive?'_ The series of images that flipped through his head showed a giggling pair of Holt siblings, yet instead of the bright eyed Pre-Kerberos two it was a darker toned, shaggy haired, battered set, donned in Rebellion armor with their arms latched around each other's necks. Matt escaped like he did- with a facial scar, nightmares, but found allies and dedicated himself to fighting the Galra, and as the slideshow of memories played on, the memory of he and his once shipmate reuniting.

 _"I appreciate the effort, Pidge,"_ His hand squeezed her shoulder, to which she responded with layering her own limb on top of his, the newfound closeness seemingly nothing new to the clone but entirely organic to the original. _"Like you've said, I know you've been busy- so I really appreciate you considering my request."_

 _"A logical, meaningful request from our fearless leader?"_ Her smirk quirked to the side as her hands slapped back into her lap, shoulders pulled up to her ears. _"Hey, I can't say no to any of that."_

 _"Can't say no to your fearless leader?"_ Shiro quipped with a chuckle, hands returning to his hips as he waltzed around the chair, leaning on the panel next to where her screen rested, the mold stuck in his head breathing heavily out of habit though it was no longer needed.

The brunette tossed her bangs out of her eyes, tilting her chin as she left her chair and grabbed the edge of the see-through screen, smirk shifting into a toothy grin as she tugged his white hair into his eyes. _"Guess not, Shiro, guess-"_

**_"Good, Very Good."_ **

Wait, what? There was another voice like himself in the imposter's head.. and wait, it felt familiar? The voice was hoarse and whiskey-like, akin to the sound of stepping on gravel- it was female, bitter and displeased though the phrases it uttered suggested otherwise. It caused his head to ache, and if his hands weren't immobile , he would've pressed his hands against his temples. He could almost place it, it was on the tip of his tongue-

The Galran Witch- Haggar. The voice that drifted across his hallucinations while he was in the arena, the one that managed to wound him enough to throw him into a healing pod and the one that crafted him metallic arm- and, the one who he assumed created this clone.

'Why? Why would you do this, you wit-'

As soon as the first black wave passed over his vision, he began to screech, using every second to attempt to get a noise out of his own mouth only to be silenced for the thousandth time that day, sensations in his hands and feet melting away. Every of one his senses was numbed as if he'd been drugged, the stale scent of the Castle's recycled air, the day-cycle artificial lights and an automatic door hissing shut with a hiss of hydraulics seared away as he fell unconscious again.

* * *

 

This time he woke up, he yelped, almost relieved to find himself in Black's consciousness, gripping at the dual-colored armor strapped to his chest. The figure that represented his partner still kneeled beside him, unblinking, blaring blue eyes focused on Shiro as he processed the previous events, it all a rush of adrenaline and blurred images that he had little time to discern between. Black watched as Shiro snapped his gaze to himself, the Paladin scrambling up and mirroring his Lion's posture.

**_Clone. Witch. Pilot. Mind._ **

"Was that..?" Shiro began, awaiting for a conformation.

 _"A copy of yourself created by the witch Haggar,"_ Black's poorly outlined form nodded, expression that of determination as he offered out a gloved hand, standing with his partner before hiding the limb behind his back. _"But even though it is a clone, it's still you, Shirogane."_

The tri-colored hair man sneered, eyes narrowing at the notion. "It's me? But how can it be me, you said I'm _dead_ , Black."

**_Shirogane. Clone. Idiot._ **

_"Clone,"_ Shiro held his nose after Black whacked it, the transparent image turning away with his cape tossing about. _"According to your memories of Earth culture, even you know what a clone is. That thing is a copy of you, down to the smallest atom- and that copy knows for a fact that he is the one and only Takashi Shirogane, the Kerberos Pilot and once Black Paladin."_

The human looked down, sighing deeply with his shoulders drooping as he frowned at his lavender-tinted reflection in the glassy underfoot. First there was aliens, then gigantic magical robot lions, then actual magic, and now he was supposed to be dead and stuck inside someone's head, all while there was a fake him running around playing pretend that could be mind-controlled?

He made a motion to sit down again, pressing the curvature of his crafted palm into the divots of his eyes- his head and heart were still running a million miles an hour while he sunk onto the ground, numbly watching his partner a number of feet away wave his hand, a flash of light hurdling down an object into his grasp. The Lion turned, the same neon eyes targeted at Shiro as he began to stroll forward with an air of overwhelming confidence.

**_Shirogane. Clone. Fight. Hope._ **

The object was an exact replica of the Black Bayard, dropped at Takashi Shirogane's feet. His metallic eyes roamed the weapon before his hand slid onto it, his hand fitting like a glove against the handle's grip, fingers tapping against the frame before his vision flew back to his Lion, a recovered sense of duty swelling over the ache in every synapse in his form. He was right before- this was war, and there was no time to waste, no time to mourn for himself or to wallow in events in the past; a ticking time-bomb was strapped to his team, thus there was not a single second to lose.

"When do we start?"

 


End file.
